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Orkut - one of the most popular social communities out there. Of course nothing beats MySpace [just check out the number of hits we get to the post referring to MySpace :-D]. However, I prefer[red] orkut to the rising community sites of that time [Yeah I enrolled in orkut about 4 years ago] - Hi5. Now, the reason why I chose orkut was a point noted by one of my best friends. Orkut did NOT allow just anyone to join. Consequently, this had reduced/limited the potential possibility of unruly, uncouth people and stuck to the concept of being a truly social community site. You’d invite only your real friends to the site.

However, things have changed now. Orkut is now open - Check out the “Join Now” option at Orkut.com login page! Now, Google has been very good at blocking people with malicious intent in orkut, however, inspite of all that Google tries, orkut still has a lot of flab in terms of porn and other unsocial stuff. Ok, I am never averse to porn, it’s just that I really don’t wanna use a service where in most of my friends/family are present to search and utilize for something like porn :-D! But then again, that’s a personal choice.

Ok, I am digressing! Coming back to the topic - orkut being open and now containing the ability to message communities as a whole, might be the next viral marketing platform. And this extends to any social community based websites. For e.g. since orkut has opened, “agents” have already have started it to communicate about land availability, buildings for sale, LIC insurance options, tax saving investments, and what not? I have already posted about resumes being posted left, right and center in the communities of firms/organizations!

There are some questions you can ask here in terms of - why is Google not stopping that, considering that this is spam? Well, the truth is - these firms with huge investments / returns from the ad-market, would definitely want to capitalize on their investments into the social community pie!! I am saying that orkut is going to be one of the most useful investments that Google made ever. [I am sure that they would know exactly why they invested in orkut. This is nothing but a hypothesis]

Why is orkut going to be useful for Google in the future?

And in a broader sense, why are the major Ad Players raking up on the social communities pie? You have Microsoft with MSN Spaces - Oops, Windows Live Spaces, Yahoo! - with Y! 360 and Google with orkut! What sense does it make for companies like Microsoft to even invest in an ONLINE SOCIAL COMMUNITY?

Well, apart from the fact that they are now becoming an essential part of the Internet package - email/IM/community, they are sitting gold-mines! Rightly predicted in the 2007 Predictions over at Read/Write Web

Expect some shakeups in the online advertising market next year. AdSense will have some competition, in the form of MSN AdCenter and Yahoo’s advertising platform

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/2007_web_predictions.php
- under Search and Online Advertising

Social Community Advantage #1: A sitting gold-mine for advertisement. Companies can post advertisements pertaining to the community. You can bet your life’s savings that people are going to click. And you can put all your eggs saying that that’s going to be the case soon enough.

Social Community Advantage #2: They are consumer-base. People who are using your packages are bound to at least “test” your social community. Make it a success, with enough people and enough contact with people within that community hitch up [ok going too much] but at least meet, you are setting up your consumer base.

Social Community Advantage #3: What better than YOUR community to evangelize your products? Let’s take the latest example - How many orkut users would have decided to give Google Talk a Go - since the tight [almost] integration of orkut and Google Talk. [Btw this was long due for Google, considering that MSN Spaces or is it Live Spaces now? is tightly integrated with Live Messenger and Y! 360 is tightly integrated with Y! Messenger].

The war on Advertising is definitely going to be interesting in 2007. We see that people are already starting to realize the potential of orkut/social communities as a perfect way to reach a niche crowd. For e.g. an insurance salesman could easily target an IT firm and post a message regarding insurance options / tax saving investments. While this is largely beneficial to the salesman and the community, it might be misused!! Are Google and other players taking the necessary precautions to prevent the next generation of spamming through this?

Let us know by your comments and trackbacks, what do _you_ think are the reason for social communities for these big players in the Internet?

Originally Posted by gurupanguji @ Bracketed Bull…

This entry was posted on Friday, December 29th, 2006 at 12:27 am and is filed under Business, General, Internet, News, Technology, Yahoo, web2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.