Google has announced that it will now allow users to link their Orkut profiles with their Google+ profile and allow them to cross post status updates from Google+ to Orkut. Linking Orkut and Google+ profiles is optional, though. Additionally, even after linking the account, users can decide if they want to share their public posts with their Orkut friends or not by indicating it in their Orkut settings.
Users can cross post public posts from Google+ to their Orkut profiles. However, it’s not possible to cross post Orkut posts to Google+. Perhaps this is because Google wants to encourage Orkut users to migrate to Google+. Once the user links the accounts, his/her Orkut profile photo and name will be updated as the Google+ photo and name. Currently, Orkut allows users to include special characters or a nick name as profile name which was a common trend among Orkut users. However, Google+ policies do not allow users to use a nick in profile name and urges users to use name they commonly use in real life.
What does this imply?
Orkut, once a popular social networking site in India, had already been overtaken by Facebook in August 2010. While Orkut allowed users to stay in touch with their network, the new wave of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter allowed users to share moments in real time which forced Google to launch its new social networking site — Google+ on similar lines. While a lot of users still frequent Orkut, what surprises us is that Google didn’t shut down the social network or allow users to migrate to the new social network after the launch of Google+. However, with this update it seems like Google wants to unify user profile and then consolidate both networks into one. So we won’t be surprised if it announces a time-line to shut down Orkut, very soon.