Google’s (NSDQ: GOOG) social networking site Orkut, which has a substantial Indian and Brazilian userbase, has gone mobile. They’ve launched a mobile version of the site - http://m.orkut.com, writes Siddharth Patel. I tried out Orkut Mobile, and it’s fine on the usability front. The homepage (post-login) has updates on scraps, upcoming birthdays, friend requests and updates from friends…one can reply to scraps. Interestingly, the functionality is comparatively limited on the mobile, perhaps for making it less complicated - a user cannot edit his/her profile, or change settings. Unfortunately, there’s no access to communities, though one can understand not giving access to videos because GPRS is too slow. We had heard that Orkut was planning to launch SMS features as well, but nothing on that yet.

I don’t remember the last time I logged onto Orkut, having moved to Facebook and Twitter, particularly because of the mobile versions of both those sites, and the IM integration of Twitter. Still, was pleasantly surprised to find a friend-request on Orkut from someone I haven’t corresponded with since I was in the 9th grade.