Orkut is Google’s attempt at social networking. Already popular in Brazil and India Orkut is struggling to make headway in the United States. In order to register for an Orkut account you must have a Gmail account and all your Orkut updates, messages and friend requests will be forwarded to your Gmail account.

Orkut is your typical social networking site still in infancy. You create your profile filling in your likes and interests. However, Orkut has seemed to take a page from Facebook and does not have any customization options.  You can upload photos, create albums and add apps.

You can also add scraps which includes things like YouTube URLs, widgets, photos, podcasts and more. It is specifically for friends. Other people just browsing your account won’t be able to see it. We found that most people use the scraps like comments.

We felt like it was really hard to search for and find friends using Orkut. You can import your address book using a .CSV file or place your email contacts into the system one by one looking for possible contacts. You can also look for contacts using keywords in the search box in the upper right-hand corner of the site. However, there is no way to narrow your search by location or age or school.

We liked the specifics of Orkut’s privacy options. You can specify which sections of your profile are visible instead of the usual “blanket” approach of everyone or just friends. You also have the ability to block users, report spam and report abuse. Additionally, you must be 18 to open an Orkut account. Although we didn’t encounter any explicit material while surfing the site.

Orkut includes a fun “ask a friend” feature that allows you to post a question and get responses from your friends. It’s like your own mini poll.

The help section includes a getting started guide, FAQs and forums run mostly by other users. As a whole, the help section is well done; however, we would have like to see an email contact just in case.