Orkut Community for Elections

With the election fever gaining pace across the country, Google’s social networking website Orkut has introduced a new community, ‘The voice of youth’, at orkut.co.in/loksabha2009. The new community will run public polls, relevant to the elections amongst users. The poll results will be available in real time and will be visible after the questions are answered. In addition to answering polls, users will be allowed to suggest various topics for polls. Voting on all the polls will close on 14 April.

Says Google India product manager Vihari Komaragiri, “In this election, more than in any previous one, young people are going to make a difference - either by voting in more numbers or by getting engaged in the democratic process. And internet is providing them a powerful platform to do just that. Social networks have become a mirror of the real world and this community will reflect what is important to all of us and will help highlight the voice of the nation.” Apart from polls, the community also has state-wise chat rooms, wherein users can debate issues specific to particular state.