Orkut - Inside out

We have been orkutting for a long time now. But most of us do not know some of the features of orkut, and many of us do not bother about them either because we just scrap or send messages, and do nothing else. Orkut has some features which are unfamiliar to most of us. I will try to explore some of those now...

• Just click the Media link at the top of the orkut page. It takes you to http://media.orkut.com/index.html where you can see a whole bunch of new links and information. It is somewhat like a blog directory. People post and discuss their thoughts, experiences and photographs. If you are interested, just try it once. You will get almost all kinds of information you need. Sky is the limit.
  
  
• If you are a regular orkut user, and check all mails regularly, you must have been fed up with a spam mail asking you to forward that mail to all friends or else your account will be deleted. That's just a crap! Goto News link at the top of orkut page, which takes you to http://www.orkut.com/News.aspx where you can read about new features and recent advancements in orkut. Also notice the post named Is it true? Inactive accounts will be deleted? I have copied that here for some of you lazy fellows who still don't want to take the pain of going there and continue to spam...
  

  We heard there's a rumor going around orkut that says orkut.com will delete your account for inactivity. We've even received this notice from someone pretending to be Orkut himself! This is not true and you can safely disregard these messages or scraps.

• If you have really gone to the News page, you will notice another link at the sidebar to the left, named Demographics. Just click that! You will be taken to http://www.orkut.com/MembersAll.aspx where you can see some graphical statistics about orkut. You will see Brazil is way ahead of other countries...
  
  
• There are some less-known features like Hot list, Crush list, Ignore list, Teasers etc., which are explained in detail in Orkut help pages. However, this is the gist:

  If you happen to have your eye on another orkut member, here's how you can take action. Find their profile and click on the "personal" tab across from their name. From the left-hand side of the page, click the appropriate button to send them a teaser message or add them to your hot-list or crush-list.
  
  Your hot and crush lists allow you to flag an orkut member that has caught your attention. These lists are for your use only, and nothing happens when you add someone, with one exception. If you add an individual to your crush-list and that same person adds you to their crush-list, you will both be sent a message indicating that there's a match. The rest is up to you!
  
  You can block another user from sending you scraps, messages, invitations, and testimonials by adding that user to your ignore list. The ignore list is visible to you and other users will not know who is on your ignore list.
  

I will post many other tips and tricks of orkut whenever I see them... Till then, happy orkutting!!