Orkut: The Need for Speed
October 12, 2010
We think there may be a number of different points of friction for Orkut, Google’s social networking service. Orkut became available since 2004. Orkut “lived” in the US, but we have heard that it now resides on servers in Brazil, not that the location of a Google server makes much difference to a user. Other folks may have a different opinion about where a particular service should reside.
The TechCrunch article “Marissa Mayer: Orkut’s U.S. Failure Was Due To Slow Performance After Fast Growth”, shows a different side of Google. Many people have never heard of Google’s social network Orkut which was introduced before Facebook. The network attracted a lot of attention in just the first few days. However, Google was not prepared and Mayer admitted “This caused the network to slow down to a crawl.” US Internet users stopped using the program and it became obsolete. Google eventually worked out the network problems but they missed a golden opportunity and their US audience was gone. With the introduction of FaceBook, Google may have lost its chance at a social network audience. Orkut continues to be popular in Brazil but when it comes to the US it seems that ship has already sailed.
The question is, “Can Google catch up with Facebook?” If the answer is, “Yes,” then the question becomes, “Can Google leap frog Facebook?” Our view is that speed is more than the rendering time of a Web page and its images. Speed also shades into closing the gap with a competitor and quickly blasting away that competitor’s market position.
Google is good at certain types of quickness, but in terms of the Facebook problem, Google is less than fleet footed in the Facebook-type market. With Facebook now the subject of wildly popular movie, the film makes clear that any notoriety is good in Hollywood. The ClickZ article about video usage delivers another interesting fact. Please, keep in mind that these 20-something oriented surveys may have some wild and crazy aspects to them.
Here’s what ClickZ said:
Facebook is now the second largest online video property in the U.S. when ranked by unique viewers, according to data from comScore. The measurement firm’s Video Metrix service reports Facebook grew its audience substantially in August, with over 58.5 million users watching video content on the site over the course of the month, compared with around 46.6 million doing so in July. Meanwhile, viewers of video content on Yahoo sites dwindled, allowing Facebook to overtake it and claim the second spot behind Google.
If true, the need for speed in the social networking sector is increasing in our opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, October 12, 2010
Freebie
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
