The good old days are almost here with ‘Hello’
While I was having a good Sunday, watching television in my room with my son, he asked me about Orkut all of a sudden. Orkut was the WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and every other social network you can name now. It was an all in one network for us, teaching us to socialise.
Socialising was not our cup of tea, back in those days, but Orkut held our hands and walked us towards making friends online and trusting the world. Friendships bloomed on the network, whereas some transformed into love too. Orkut was the first step towards making connections virtually. The network was a hit in India and Brazil, as people developed connections.
I asked my son for why does he wants to know about my good old days, and he told me about the advent of hello. Browsing the internet, I found about hello and told him the complete comparison of the dead and newborn network.
Although Orkut died in 2014, we had already bid our farewells to the network long before its death. Before the coming of Orkut into our lives, we didn’t even know what social networking was, but as it is always said, we forget the pioneers and glorify the successors, we did the same with Orkut. With Facebook coming into our lives we forget how cool Orkut was for us.
Orkut was a big hit in the yesteryear as it allowed you to change the entire colour scheme and add themes to your profile. The profiles on Orkut were public where your friends could write testimonials. Those were such good days when my friends used to write sarcastic testimonials on my profile for my visitors. What else? Unlike Facebook, Orkut always told you who visited your profile to keep track of your visitors or more so stalkers. Your friends could fill scrapbooks on Orkut just like you used to get a physical scrapbook filled by your fellow mates. Really, Orkut had us growing, and connecting us with people! Before Orkut came into our lives, it was all about staying away from strangers, but with its arrival, the philosophy changed to grow more connections and make new friends.
Once popular Orkut died a slow death which has been reincarnated with hello network now. Coming up with hello, the founder Orkut Büyükkökten, aims to emphasise on authentic connections. Hello network connects people who share the same interests and passion for providing an authentic mode of communication. While the network has been talked about since a year or two, it launched in India in April 2018. Beta version of the application was already running to test the application and bang on the media with the comeback of Orkut. Hello has a feature where you can add five most relatable interests and likes, that defines you and connect with similar people on the basis of it. This feature is called ‘persona’, as it lets you chat and exchange experiences with others, who share same interests. You can even change your personas from time to time.
The application may be a threat to Instagram with its only image sharing characteristic. Your feed will show what is trending on the network only on the basis of your interests, unlike other social networks, where your news feed is filled with the posts your friends’ likes or share but are not of your interest. Similar to the older version of Orkut, communities are also created by the members of the network, letting the user be a part of something unique and specific to his interest. Although most of the hello features are hidden for the user to explore and discover them, it makes them curious to sign up with the app. Hello too have open accounts for users to view the profile of people which have similar interests. When you browse through the postings in a particular persona, it is called ‘jots’. Jot it down to build more authentic connections.
Hello uses algorithms to ensure that you get the right content on your feed, while no user information is being leaked to a third party application. The application is just like a game. In a game as you go earn points to level up, here too, your posts, and your interests let you earn points to level up. Game up with the application to score well with your friends as it also allows you to play games. The website version is not yet available in the market, but the application is walking down the lane of future.
Hello may be new and cool but it cannot replace the heydays of Orkut. But the question is that will it affect the business modules of Facebook and Instagram? Since Facebook and Instagram have developed from personal interaction to business interactions, will it be a threat to the networks in the near future. Although, Büyükkökten, emphasises on building connections, will he begin with business connections too? And if not, then will hello say goodbye soon too? We’ll see how Hello flourishes in a few years.
