It is a known fact that on popular social networking websites, rivalries between countries exist. Usually they are friendly rivalries. However post Mumbai attacks saw a different turn into the meaning of rivalries. Orkut is a very popular social networking site in both Pakistan and India. Recently, an Indian group known as HMG (Hindu Militant Guards) committed a gross criminal offense by hacking into the largest Pakistan community in Orkut.

The community for 41 thousands plus Pakistani members was hacked using brute force and owner’s profile was compromised very badly using sophisticated hacking methods. Their reason for hacking into a largest Pakistani community was to avenge the Mumbai attacks. Its shocking how something that had happened in real life, had to transcend into virtual life.

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But guess what. Members from India get first preference when it comes to testing out new changes. Same was the case when Orkut changed its theme to a new CSS layout long time back or when it introduced applications like Facebook.

Its always the users from India who get to try out these changes first. Orkut knows which side its bread is buttered on.

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Google submitted somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 H-1B applications this April for 2009.

Last year, 248 of its visa applications were accepted by the Labor Department. But thats not all. Around 70, which is more than 25%, were rejected, according to Wolfe, who is Google’s global mobility manager.

The company has no definite plans on how many applications it plans to file each year. Depending on the business, if it grows or is expected to grow in a certain field, they add more bodies in the department.

When the business is good (or exceptionally good in the case of Google!) they seek to attract, hire, and retain the world’s top talent, both U.S.-born and non-U.S.-born. Google is committed to hiring the best and brightest employees, regardless of country of origin.

Wolfe, the mobility manager also offered a couple of examples of the numerous “incredibly talented” employees it has hired and trained in the U.S. under the H-1B visa program.

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An Indian commerce student found it the hard way.

You can have an opinion about anyone in a free country like India, even some one as important as Sonia Gandhi, but if you are not careful about the way you express it, you could land in serious trouble.

This is precisely what happened to 22-year-old IT professional Rahul Krishnakumar Vaid from Gurgaon, Haryana who was arrested by the Pune police for posting derogatory content about Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Mahatma Gandhi on an orkut community named — “I hate Sonia Gandhi”.

Interestingly, the person who formed this community is not guilty as per the law. The police said that hating Sonia Gandhi is a personal opinion of the person who formed the community and having a personal opinion about someone is not an offence as per the law.

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So today when I logged into Thunder bird to check my email, what do I see but a notification from Orkut asking me to verify my account or else it will be deleted.

Boo-Hoo.

Same old phishing scams which seem to be a dime a dozen these days. The email is pasted below as it is:

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A new social networking site – Bigadda (www.bigadda.com) – has been getting rave reviews in the Indian media. Claims like 15 members signing up every minute to the site hoping to attract 10 million users by 2010 are doing the round.

Intrigued, I decided to check it out and see for myself what the buzz what all about. So here goes.

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