We’ve been following the crisis in Japan and would like to show our support for a speedy recovery with a special doodle:

Many teams at Google came together to support the crisis, from a centralized Crisis Response page, available in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean, a Person Finder tool, up-to-date satellite images in Google Earth and change trackers in Google Maps, and an easier donation process. See our Google.org blog post for more details.

Our hearts go out to those who have been affected by the tragedy!

Posted by Susan Taing, Orkut Team

Browsing your friends’ photo albums is one of the coolest things to do on Orkut, and now our full-screen viewer just got even better. It can display photos like they deserve to be seen: BIG, fast, and with the ability to comment and like them (or not) right there!

To see your friends’ photos in this new format, just click the "view in full screen” link:

Voila! Now just sit back and enjoy all the photos on Orkut -- your friends’ and your own -- in full-screen. To comment or like them, use the options on the right side of each photo.

So go ahead and upload your best photos to Orkut and let your friends see and comment them with all the quality they deserve!

Posted by Gustavo Moura, User Experience Team

Two weeks ago, we announced that we are preparing a visual upgrade to Orkut’s interface. We have just started to roll it out to a small percentage of users, so some of you might start to see it. Right now, we are only upgrading those who are using new Orkut, but if you are in the old interface, please do give it a try when we complete the transition!

In addition, we are happy to announce a new feature today that we hope you will “like”:

Just as we add different smileys in emails, scraps and chat, we recognize that you likely have different reactions to your friends’ stories. Here are a few you might recognize from Google Chat, and in addition, you can find extra “smileys” if you type in the right code in the comment field.

Lastly, we now have an official Twitter account at @orkutindia. Feel free to follow us there in addition to this official blog (en.blog.orkut.com) and the official community at www.orkut.com/orkut

Give our “like?” feature a try today and see just how diverse your friends are in their reactions. Rock on, Orkut users!

Posted by Gustavo Moura, User Experience Team

(Updated post providing additional details and the new date for this change)

Today, you are asked to enter your date of birth in a few different places for different Google products (for example, YouTube, Orkut, and Google Profiles). This is because we store this information in different back-end systems. To make this process more organized, and to prevent you from having to enter the same information in multiple locations, over the next few days we plan to consolidate the date of birth you’ve given us across these sites.

As a result, starting on April 7, the birthdate you have listed on Orkut will no longer be changeable. So take a minute to double-check your birthday before this change takes place.

Posted by Rodrigo Paiva, Orkut Operations Team

Carnival in Brazil has just started! Our Carnival doodle this year was inspired by materials typically used by the performing Schools of Samba in their costumes and floats. To reflect the spirit of Carnival, we included the various colors and objects at the party to represent the diverse parts that come together to make the overall party so special.

For the first time, we created a doodle using real-life objects and pieced them together with scissors and glue, both typical Carnival materials. Here is a slideshow to illustrate our "making of":

We will be live streaming the festivities from the streets of Salvador between March 4th and March 8th, at 6pm every evening. Be sure to tune in to www.youtube.com/carnaval to see.

Lastly, we created photos add-ons such as masks and ribbons inside Picnik, a photo editing feature which was integrated into Orkut last December. These add-ons were created especially for Carnival, so just select a photo from your Orkut album, click the "Edit with Picnik” button and enjoy!

Happy Carnival!

Posted by Ariel, Orkut Marketing Team

Last year we launched Orkut Badges and wanted to create badges that would recognize Orkut’s most active users. For instance, we created the badge “Promoter” for those who made the most successful promotions, and the “Trend Setter” badge for users who got a lot of comments on things they posted on Orkut.

Along these lines, we’ve just launched a new badge for users that have “Graduated” from many of Orkut’s experiences.

To get this badge you need to:

• have at least three Groups of Friends
• use a theme
• have installed at least one game or app
• be a member of at least three communities
• have a public photo album
• have commented any of your friends’ updates
• have posted something publicly - a public scrap or a headline, for instance
• have posted something private - a private scrap to a group of friends

If you’ve done all the things listed above but haven’t received your “Graduated” badge yet, don’t worry: it might take a few days to show up. Until then, give some other Orkut features a try, since we’re already thinking about new badges for our advanced users! :-)

Posted by Frederico Quintão, software engineer

We’re always looking to improve the product experience for our users, and based on your feedback, we’ve worked on some simple changes to Orkut’s look and feel. We’ll roll these changes out gradually to all users, in approximately two weeks from now. No invitation will be required as everyone will get the update -- so if you don’t see anything right away, just sit tight and you’ll see them soon!

Here are some of the new enhancements that you’ll begin to see in a few weeks:

• Left navigation, to help you get to the most popular features more easily.
• A new larger profile photo, a popular request. Be sure to upload a higher resolution photo of yourself!
• New full profile view, which lets you and your friends see your info, interests, badges, testimonials and recent photos and videos.
• New fullscreen slideshow for photos.

Like what you see? Check out our our official community and let us know your feedback.

We will also have a few more surprises for you in the next month, including updates on communities and new limits on friends, photos and videos, so stay tuned!

Posted by Barbara Veloso, user experience team