Thousands of small businesses owners use Orkut to share information about their products and services, and to communicate with their customers. Now it's even easier to find these businesses using Google Maps from the owner's Orkut profile!

When you visit the Orkut profile of a business owner, you'll find a badge indicating that his listing is already on Google Maps. To visit the listing on the map, just click on the badge:

If you own a business and have an Orkut profile but you haven’t received this badge yet, simply add your listing to Google Maps. Keep in mind that your business doesn't need its own website to be listed on Google! Google Places allows business owners to manage information about their listings if they're already on Google Maps, or to add them to the map if they're not yet listed.

Once they've verified that the basic information about their business is correct and up-to-date, and added details like hours of business and photos, business owners can count on their listings being shown to Google users to grow their customer base. Their listing will appear among search results across Google, including Google Maps, even if they don't have a website. And of course, this is all completely free.

Find out more about Google Places by watching this video:

Let's get started! Claim ownership or create your business listing in Google Maps, using the same Google Account you use to access your Orkut profile. Once your business listing is verified on Google Places, your Orkut profile will earn a badge in a few days!

If you need help, visit the Google Places Help Center and watch this tutorial video about Google Places:

Here's to the success of your business!

Posted by Igor Gatis and Igor Cananea, Software Engineers

Ever wonder how popular your photos are? Now you can know!

There’s a new feature in Orkut’s photo albums that shows you how many times each photo has been viewed. Each and every one of your photos will have a counter, keeping accurate stats on its “popularity level”. This number is refreshed every few minutes so you’ll always know how many people have checked in on the photos you keep on Orkut.

See a lot of hits? Keep the picture! No views? Maybe it’s time for a new photo, or even a new album, to give your friends something new to look at. The Orkut photo album counter is a great new and dynamic way to see how much your friends enjoy you and your photography skills!

Posted by Maira Nascimento, Software Engineer

Football fans, we know you have been asking for your favorite sport in our themes gallery, and today we are happy to announce that you can now add soccer as a theme, in four colors: Green, Blue, Orange and Red.

Enjoy!

Posted by Susan Taing, Orkut Marketing Team