You might have noticed something new in orkut. Some of your friends may have little icons on their profile pages, and you may start seeing some updates from friends as well. These are our new orkut badges!

Badges are another way for you to express yourself on orkut, with different sets of badges for users that engage with orkut in different ways. For example, if you've been on orkut for a long time, you might get an Early User badge! Or, if you created a popular promotion, you might get a Promoter badge. Once you win a badge, it's up to you if you want to display it on your profile or not.

There will be lots of badges available for you to collect, based on your interactions with orkut. Here's an initial list of badges that we plan to make available over the coming weeks. Can you collect them all?

Also, keep an eye out for more, because who knows what other badges might show up around here? Imagination is the limit! :)

Posted by Igor Cananea and Ranveer Kunal, software engineers

Today is Thanksgiving, a holiday dedicated to showing your appreciation for all of the positive things in your life. If you'd like to read more about the holiday, check out last year's post.

On the orkut team, we're thankful for a lot of things. We're thankful for our families: our loving parents, siblings, spouses and children, who sometimes put up with our long hours at work. We're also thankful to be able to work on a product we care deeply about and thankful that it brings happiness to so many people around the world.

Of course, we're also incredibly thankful for all of you. We've said it before, and we'll say it again: you guys are what powers orkut to be what it is today, and your feedback is our motivation to continue innovating. So thanks everyone– we really appreciate you!

Now it's your turn. What are you thankful for? Send a group scrap to your friends or family and let them know. Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted by Barbara Veloso, user experience team