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Orkut is Google's own social networking site, somewhat similar to Facebook, Bebo and MySpace.
It was named after its creator, Orkut Büyükkökten, a Google staffer. The site is very popular in Brazil, reputedly because the name is easy to pronounce in Portugese. It is also very popular in India, where in late 2008 it was the second most-visited website.
Its "soft launch" was on January 22, 2004, with entry by invitation only, and it was only opened to anyone in October 2006.
Google encourages developers to write applications for it.
