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Recently, Google broadened its Orkut’s portfolio by making OpenSocial applications available on it. The OpenSocial applications on Orkut, created by third party developers, lets the user interact with friends and customize their Orkut profile by adding games, music and much more.

With over a dozen applications to choose from today and many more on the way, you can share your favourite books with other enthusiasts, tell your friends about your favourite hangouts, and even play games with them. These applications are integrated into user profiles in the same manner as regular Orkut features, such as scrapbook or testimonials.

All of the applications are built on the OpenSocial platform, a set of common APIs that enables developers to build social applications that run on many sites, all across the web. The launch of OpenSocial on Orkut means that developers can potentially reach tens of millions of Orkut users from around the world and hundreds of millions of new users through other OpenSocial container sites.

“With the launch of applications, Orkut users will get access to more new features everyday, thereby improving the user experience at a faster rate. These applications will speed up innovation, unleash developers' creativity, and make the Internet even more enjoyable for users,” said Vinay Goel, Head of Products, Google India.

Indian developers, giving it a more ‘desi’ experience, are developing some of the applications on Orkut. 'Hangout' is one such application that enables Orkut users to schedule an event and invite friends to it. Be it a concert or a coffee meeting, Orkut can now let your friends know where to hang out.

Goel further added saying, “With so much user interest and enthusiasm around Orkut and other interactive websites, it is safe to say that the Web is better when it's social. Our goal is to constantly make Orkut better by releasing new features.”

With apps that cover everything from travel to cricket, education to entertainment- Orkut users can look forward to a more enriching online experience.