Who’s the Google of social networking sites? The obvious answer may seem to be Facebook, given its rapid growth, successful cooperation with application developers, and ever-smarter ad targeting. But by some measures, the real answer is even more obvious: Google itself.This week, Google is drawing attention to its often-ignored social networking site, Orkut.com, with a redesign intended to prettify the site’s Spartan look. And attention is deserved: Despite its low profile in the U.S., Orkut now draws 38.2 billion page views a month worldwide, 7.8 billion more than Facebook, according to comScore Media Metrix.
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/08/28/google-brazil-network-tech-cx_ag_0828orkut.html