Google is shutting down its Orkut social network on September 30

Jun30

by Sindy Cator on June 30, 2014 at 2:27 pm

Google today announced plans to shut down Orkut, its first attempt at building a social network. The platform will be formally closed on September 30, after which users will be unable to log in or export their photo albums to Google+. Orkut grew out of Google’s 20 percent initiative, which allowed employees to use a fifth of their working week on side projects. Of course, the social network has since been supplanted by Google+, a more ambitious service that ties into many of Google’s other products. The decision to close Orkut is therefore hardly surprising – the fact it took so…