Nikpages » orkut

How to remove ads from Orkut pages

Nikhil — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 06:01:29 +0000

You must have noticed that Orkut has now shifted the position of ads to the top of Orkut pages. Doesn’t that make Orkut look dirty? I will show you how you can remove those ads from Orkut pages. This trick has been there for quite some time, but now that Orkut is showing them right at top of pages, I think it would be good to remove them.

This works with Mozilla Firefox only.
Install Greasemonkey add-on for Firefox (if you haven’t)
Install the remove Orkut ads script

Why Orkut is showing ads ?

The Official Orkut blog explains that in this post as

One of the great things about social networks is their ability to supply you with information that’s relevant to you….On the Orkut team, we believe that advertisements should be no different

So the Orkut team thinks that these ads may provide additional information relevant to you.

But that might not be the only reason. There were rumors that Google might be shutting down Orkut. Running Orkut is a very expensive task for Google and they might want to earn at least some part of the expenses through these ads.

In fact they have created a micro site for advertising on Orkut that says Orkut is the best way to reach Indians online.

Manage emails from twitter using multiple inboxes feature of Gmail

Nikhil — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:56:00 +0000

Social networking sites like Twitter sends you a lot of email daily and if you don’t use separate emails it might be difficult to manage your inbox. In this post I will explain how I use the Multiple inboxes feature of Gmail to over come this with the example of managing emails from Twitter.

1. Create a filter for emails from Twitter :

Go to Gmail Settings > Filters > Create a new filter

In the From text box use Twitter . Then just click Test search to find if that is really working and click Next Step >>

In the next window check the options Skip the inbox (Archive it) and Apply the label and create a new label from the drop down box. I used the label Twitter

NB: Checking the Skip the inbox option is important, otherwise you will see the email in both your actual inbox and new inbox

2. Using the Multiple inboxes feature

Multiple Inboxes is a Gmail labs feature so you have to enable that first. Goto Settings > Labs and find the Multiple Inboxes feature .enable it using the enable radio button and Save your changes.

You can add a number of inboxes. For adding a new inbox for your Twitter emails use label:Twitter in the first text box. (since I used Twitter as the label name).

You can choose the number of emails to be shown and also the position of the new inbox.

That’s it now when ever you open your Gmail you see a multiple inboxes. Filters are a power feature of Gmail. You can used them along with some Gmail labs features such as Canned Responses to create amazing results. So do experiment with them. You can use the same idea to manage your newsletter and rss subscriptions and lots more.

Vodafone Zoozoo smileys for Orkut

Nikhil — Fri, 15 May 2009 07:12:23 +0000

One thing I loved the most about this years IPL apart from the on field action was the Vodafone Zoozoo ads. I was really surprised to know that they were real humans in masks and not animation. Now you can get Vodafone Zoozoo smileys for Orkut.

This works with Mozilla Firefox only.
Install Greasemonkey add-on for Firefox (if you haven’t)
Install the Vodafone Orkut smileys (via OrkutPlus)

[ via OrkutPlus ]

Orkut get sms notification for new scraps for free

Nikhil — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 09:15:19 +0000

Orkut has introduced Orkut SMS in India also so you can receive new scrap notification and sen scraps via your mobile. But this is a premium feature and you are charged by your operator (Rs 2/-) per sms. But here is how you can get SMS notifications for new scraps absolutely free. This is similar to my post about getting email notification via sms but this one doesn’t use FreeMyFeed service.

First Step: Getting the feed URL of your scrapbook

Goto OrkutFeeds and give your scrapbook URL (something like http://www.orkut.com/Scrapbook.aspx?uid=1559222230473877..) and they will give you the feed for your scrap book.

You get you feed URL http://www.orkutfeeds.com/feed.php?uid=15592….

How to get your scrapbook URL

Here is how you can get your scrapbook URL, it is like http://www.orkut.com/Scrapbook.aspx?uid=xxxxxxxxxxx You can find your uid by clicking on the profile link on your Orkut home page, you will be directed to the profile page and you can find uid from the address bar.

Second Step: Creating SMS channel

In this step we will create an SMS channel for our feed. Goto Google SMS channel and sign in using your Google account. If you are using this for the first time you have to get your mobile verified by getting an SMS with activation code. Once that is done click on try it now section at the right side of it home page to create your own channel.

You will have to fill a long form like the one below now where you have to give the feed URL obtained in the previous step.

You have to be very careful about two things.

1. You have to select RSS/Feed Atom as Source and give the feed URL obtained in the previous step. (Without http:// as that is already given there)

2. Change Allow publishing by to Only me and Who can subscribe to By invitation only. This makes your feed private so that only you can view them.

Almost done , now click create channel.

From now onwards whenever someone scraps you ,you get an sms notification with your friends name.

Save images from orkut albums

Nikhil — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 06:04:52 +0000

You must have noticed that Orkut has disabled right click on images in orkut albums. This means you can’t save images from an orkut album. There are a couple of tricks throug which you can still save images. These tricks can be used to save images from many other sites with right click disabled.

The simplest way is to drag the image to the address bar. You can also drag it to a new tab or to the new tab area to open in a separate tab.

If you are using Mozilla Firefox, Easy DragToGo is a very useful add-on that helps you to save images by just dragging on them. Click here to install the add-on. This can be used to save image or open in a new tab or open in new window etc according to different mouse gestures. Also this can be used to open links in new window, search a selected text etc.

Add user menu to Orkut

Nikhil — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 10:55:44 +0000

This is a GreaseMonkey application that adds a user menu to user profiles on orkut that provides one click access to their scarpbook,album,add as friend etc when you right click on user pictures. This is really cool feature and avoid wasting time by visiting the user profile each time.

There was some other userscripts for firefox similar to this that replaced user name with links to scrapbook, album etc, but this one is better and beautiful. See screenshot

This script works only with Mozilla Firefox free downloadable.

Install GreaseMonkey addon for firefox if you haven’t yet. Click to install
Install the Userscript for user menu. Click to install