Another year has gone by, and it's certainly been an exciting one for the orkut team. In the past 12 months, we're proud to have:

• launched inline photo comments
• redesigned our help forum
• given you better community controls
• built an application for your mobile phones
• offered face detection for your orkut photos
• integrated chat to orkut
• introduced orkut promote
• created a free, integrated video chat tool
• and, who could forget, launched an entirely redesigned version of orkut, with many more announcements since ;-)

Through it all, our primary guide has always been your feedback, and we're happy to hear that so many of you have enjoyed what's come so far.

We have a lot of exciting updates planned for 2010, but we'd also like to hear about things that you'd like to see. So, let us know: what's your biggest wish for orkut in 2010? Please be sure to get in touch and tell us what's on your mind.

As you head out to celebrate the new year with your friends and family, don't forget to check out the orkut doodle that we've created in honor of the date:

Oh, and be sure to post the pictures from all your New Year's antics to orkut so that your friends can see what you've been up to.

Happy New Year from the whole orkut team!

Decorate your tree, hang your stockings and candy canes, prepare your gifts and get ready for Santa Claus to arrive. Christmas time is here and people in countries all over the world are getting into the holiday spirit.

For those who celebrate, it's a great time to gather your family, friends and loved ones and throw a holiday party with tons of food, gifts, and cheer.

There's plenty to do on orkut as well. You can send a holiday-themed scrap to your friends using the Fun Scraps Open Social application or play one of the many games available like Sugar Free Super Hero or 12 days of Christmas.

Whether you're celebrating or not, we hope you have a wonderful day. Happy holidays to you and yours!

Posted by Ariel, orkut operations team

We're happy to announce the launch of a great new way for you to share with your friends interesting content that you read on the web -- the 'orkut share' bookmarklet for internet browsers.

To quickly install this bookmarklet in any browser, just visit the 'orkut share' installation page. In a few seconds you'll be all set.

Then, when you find something cool on the internet, just click the bookmarklet and share a snippet and a link to the webpage with your friends on orkut. You'll also have an option to create a promotion (using 'orkut promote') to better spread the word about that content.

Your friends will see a link to the page you shared and your comments about it in their 'friends updates' section. They'll also be able to comment on it:

Web publishers and bloggers can also post 'orkut share' buttons (like the one at the end of this post) on their pages to enable their visitors to share content they find interesting on the site with their friends on orkut. If you run a blog or a website, try our code generator or visit the API documentation for more details.

So spread the word and have fun sharing!

Posted by Rajiv Mathews and Jayesh Sharma, software engineers

We recently announced the launch of orkut video chat, an easy way for you and your friends to keep in touch, virtually face-to-face, directly from your orkut pages.

To enjoy this feature, all you need is a webcam and a small plugin -- free at www.google.com/chat/video.

Take a look at this video to see how it works:

Remember that to be able to chat or video chat, first you have to validate your e-mail address on orkut.

To learn more, visit this help center page. Also, don't forget to give us your feedback through the orkut help forum. Have fun video chatting with your friends!

Posted by Ariel, orkut operations team

It's been six weeks since we announced the new version of orkut. During this time we've received great feedback regarding the faster speed, improved organization and easier ways to interact with your friends on orkut. We also recently announced the launch of 40 different colors for your profile, the 'orkut share' bookmarklet and a brand new photo experience.

Overall, it's very exciting to discover how much you're enjoying the new orkut. Driven by this enthusiasm, the orkut team decided to give you an early present this holiday season: now everyone can join the new orkut, no invites needed.

If you're not using the new orkut yet, all you have to do is click the special button at the top of your orkut page. And if you can't yet see the button in your page, don't worry, you'll be able to see it soon; it may take a few days to get to everyone.

Remember that all data you had in the previous version is also supported by the new orkut -- so don't worry, everything will be there.

For those of you who haven't had a chance to check out the new orkut, we hope you enjoy it. Remember to stay tuned, there are more surprises to come in early 2010!

Posted by Victor Ribeiro, orkut product management director

You've told us that you really liked the fast photo uploading feature on the new orkut, and we're thrilled! So, recently we turned our focus to revamping your photo viewing experience.

In-line photo browsing

When you receive a photo upload update from a friend in your activity stream, now all you have to do to see the full-sized photo is click on the thumbnail in your update. You can also comment on the photo and see comments by others in your activity stream. This means you can continue checking out other updates without opening a new page.

Using the left and right arrow buttons at the bottom of the photo, you can browse all the photos shared with you. You can also pick a photo you want to see up close by clicking on the 'photo film strip' up top.

Convenient face detection

Clicking the "people in this photo" link at the bottom left of a photo highlights all of the faces that orkut has automatically detected with rectangles. Just click on a rectangle to tag a face by typing a name in the pop-up box. You can also hide the rectangles with a single click.

Photo slideshows
Notice the "slideshow" icon at the bottom right of the full view of the photo? Click on it and sit back for a full-screen, automated slideshow of the photo album. You can stop the show at any time or hover over the thumbnail strip at the bottom of the slideshow to enlarge a particular image. You can also jump ahead to an interesting photo, or go back to one you want to view again. Try playing around with some of the keyboard controls (like Home, End, left and right arrows, Spacebar, and Escape), to see what happens.

Note: we're still working on a version of this feature for Internet Explorer, so if you'd like to check it out now, just sign in to orkut using either Google Chrome or Firefox.

You can enjoy many of these same features not just in the "friends updates" section on your orkut homepage but also from the "profile" and "photos" pages.

We hope you enjoy the new photo viewing, commenting and tagging experience -- and please keep telling us what you think at the orkut help forum or official community.

Posted by Nayyar Azam, software engineer

UPDATE: The photo slideshows feature is also available for IE users as well!

While you're staying busy on orkut, we wanted to give you an update on how to smoothly get into the new orkut. If you're not yet using the new orkut, the best thing to do is ask a friend who's already using it to share an invite. If you visit your friend's profile page and see this icon next to their name, they probably have an invitation to share -- so be bold, and ask for one!

Another way to get invites is to join the official community. Remember that these are the only two ways of getting invites currently, so beware of fake links, spreadsheets, scripts ("copy and paste a code to your browser") and other phishing activities.

And if you see a special button on the top of your orkut homepage, that means you've already been invited to the new orkut. Just click this button to get started:

Everyone who's on the new orkut will eventually receive invitations to share with friends. When you receive yours, you'll see a counter on your homepage, below the friends box, indicating how many invitations you have to share. To invite friends, simply click "invite your friends" and choose who you want to invite. Only friends who aren't yet using the new orkut will appear on the list. As you invite friends, your counter will reflect your remaining number of invitations.

We enjoy reading your comments and reactions to the new orkut. So far, we've heard that you "liked the ability to comment on... updates," loved "the fast photo uploads" and the "faster interface."  But we're also interested in the stuff you're not so excited about, or want to see that hasn't shown up yet. Our users are our inspiration, so keep your comments coming. Make sure you tell us what's on your mind through the orkut Help Forum or the official community polls.

As we close, here's a video we hope you'll enjoy about the new orkut:

Posted by Poppy, orkut operations team