Heard of Orkut, Google's Social Networking Arm?

Anyone ever heard of Orkut? It is Google's social networking arm. Yes, Google is into social networking as well, and believe it or not this very Orkut, beats the pants off Facebook.

According to a recent analysis by comScore Media Metrix, Google's Orkut social network, which many had written off as dead on arrival, now draws 38.2 billion pages views per month worldwide. Facebook totals about 7.8 billion worldwide page views.

In the last quarter, Google reported $1.24 billion in foreign ad revenue, nearly double the amount it reported for the same period in 2006.

According to a report in Forbes.com, Google is looking to better leverage Orkut in the U.S. by giving the site a redesign that ads flavor and sex appeal to an otherwise blank template.

"Until now, Orkut has been an also-ran in the U.S. because it's been neglected by Google," Greg Sterling, a consultant with Sterling Market Research told Forbes. "But with just a few tweaks and redesigns, and in combination with all of Google's services, it has the potential to really differentiate itself from MySpace and Facebook."