Sep 25th 2008, all requests started spoofing which utilized the .NET implementation of oAuth. It not only affected Orkut but all open social containers. So we started to find the problem as we can’t rely on others for the solution as it was affecting our application’s performance and all the data was insecure because we stopped checking the authenticity of the request.

Anyways, we started working on it and within 3 hours we had the solution. The problem was that Opensocial made some changes to their architecture and it started to send value in Token instead of Null and the which affected the base signature because it started adding the value from token to generate the signature. We have already submitted our solution to Google and you will soon find the code in Google Opensocial oAuth wiki page. But for now you can download the code from here:

http://www.xtremeheights.com/oAuth/oauth-net.zip

This is plug & play code. Just add the 2 CS files into your project and copy the code provided in text file in every page which you want to authenticate.

Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. We would be more than happy to help you.

If you don’t know anything about this then please have a look at on Orkut Developer’s forum here:

http://groups.google.com/group/opensocial-orkut/browse_thread/thread/c38fc11c6838f330

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It is 2:00 am now and our application went live on Orkut and the response was tremendous. In the first hour we had 190 people trying to make their life popular. This application utilizes the power of cloud computing so we were not worried about the load. We just want to make sure that our application stays in newest application for at least 3-4 days and our viral channels should be fairly used by our clients.

Everything was so perfect and within 24 hours we got 2200 users using our application. To our amusement 90% of the users were girls. Girls really like to tell about their life and they surely do want to get famous. And this was good for us because our application sends updates to all friends and everybody has a soft corner for girls. Boys want to know what the next door girl is doing and girls always want to know who is doing what.

So why don’t you give it a try and start promoting your life. Be ready to live a glamorous life.

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We are doing great with this application with over 200 new clients registering daily. Below are some basic facts about Chess 2.0 League:

1. New application launched on the same day and we remained on newest addition page for less than 24 hours. Within 24 hours we managed to get approx 1200 new visitors on the first day and got a placement on the third page. If we would have been on the newest section for about 3 days then I am sure we would have made to the first page in Orkut Apps directory.

2. After the application was removed from newest apps we had to use these 1200 visitors to help us spread our word virally. We had very little hope to get new visitors from Orkut app directory as 90% of the people do not browse each page.

3. Good point was that nearly 80% of the people updated their email address which means we could send them emails whenever their opponent would make their move and in this way they would be reminded again of the game they are playing on Orkut. The strategy worked well and every day we execute about 600 games.

4. Our motive is to build an application with consistent traffic and we are glad to say that we are constantly increasing traffic everyday by about 5% by utilizing viral channels effectively.

5. We provide support through community on Orkut and it feels great when chess lovers say that we are the best on Orkut.

It does not need to be on the top to be the best but to get to the top you need to be the best. So lets wait and see in how many days we get to the top. Our fingers are crossed. .

Play Chess 2.0 League on Orkut now.

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We have submitted our second social application “It’s My life” to Orkut and waiting for approval.  “Its my life” is all about sharing your life with others. But concept is not so simple as it seems. It not only shares your life but it can help you get famous by spreading your word virally.

It is just like Scraps concept on Orkut but with a difference that as soon as you post something all your friends gets an update. Your friends can comment on your story and whenever they make a comment their friends would get an update about your story. The whole concept is to promote your story to the entire network on Orkut.

So, Join if you …
- need someone to share your emotions.
- want to tell the world about your achievement.
- want to document your life and get famous.
- want to tell people what you think.
- want to help your friends.

Let’s make everyone’s life happy. Share your daily short stories and help your friends learn something from your experiences or read others and learn from their experiences.

I hope you would like this application. Please send us your comments. We love to get admire after so much of the hard work.

Our idea is to build a social network of applications which can be accessed from Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, Hi5 etc. By the end of this year we will have 12 applications with more than 1 million users using it and we are trying to develop some meaningful applications which can change your life.

Don’t forget to check “It’s my Life – Let’s make everyone’s life happy”.

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Wednesday, 6^th August 08 at 11:12 PM, I opened my emails and found an email from Orkut.  I knew what was inside that email. And here is what they wrote:

“Hi. Your application has just been approved and should be listed in orkut’s directory within an hour, although it may take a bit longer to show in the ‘newest additions’ panel.”

I knew it’s time to keep awake. I informed the whole team and the excitement got doubled. We started monitoring our servers so that everything goes smoothly.

Here is the complete thrilling experience:

1. Application went live @ 11:15 PM on 6^th Aug 08.
2. Within 1^st minute of launch we had our first player from Brazil.
3. Within an hour we had 42 members playing 20+ games.
4. As it was midnight so only I and Rajesh were in the office. And we feel lucky to experience such a wonderful night.
5. Server was behaving perfectly and to our surprise 1 member was coming every minute.
6. We played lots of games with new members and got some great feedbacks.
7. We reached 100 members within 2 hours of the launch.
8. Got an email from Google to change few things and we were glad to know that Google gives importance to applications even after launch.
9. At about 6:15 AM (7 hours after launch) we had some 500 members and this night would never come again even after we launch many more applications like this.

This is just a small part of strategy we have developed. The main product is different and we are sure that we will be bringing much more users to the parent product.

So keep in touch and let’s bring some excitement in everybody’s life.

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