Well, I think it’s fascinating, but I’m writing a book about search, and watching Google manage this particular herd of cats is simply too interesting to look away. So here’s my comment, for what it’s worth: pretending that this is not a Google project is disingenuous. Orkut *is* a Google project. End of story. Even if it wasn’t intended to be, it is. And the folks at Google know that as important as the influencers in tech might be, orkut, in the end, is about the folks who could give a crap about the blogosphere. I’ll wager they’ll ride out the initial bad reviews, and hope the masses join up. Unless, of course, a few major journalists write it up as a bust. It’s rather like the Dean campaign, no? Are Xeni and danah providing the primal scream?