Opera Mini Users Can’t Access Orkut

Opera Logo Orkut Logo

Update 21-Aug-2008: This issue has been resolved.  Orkut is working again for Opera Mini users.

Google’s Orkut social network is hugely popular in India. In fact, India ranks second in the number of Orkut members (after Brazil).  And many Indians use the Opera Mini browser to visit Orkut.  Of all nations, India ranks third in the number of Opera Mini users, after Russia and Indonesia, and Orkut is the second most popular site (after Google) among Indian Opera Mini users.

But all is not well in this relationship.  Since Friday, which coincidentally was Indian Independence Day, Orkut has been unavailable to users of the current 4.1 version of Opera Mini. After logging in, instead of seeing the Orkut homepage, Opera Mini users get a page that is blank except for the word “Google”.  The only workaround is to use a different browser.  Other full web mobile browsers, including Opera Mini 3.1, do allow users to login to Orkut.  However 4.1 has many more features than the year old 3.1 and most users would prefer not having to switch to a less capable browser just to get into Orkut.

There’s a long history of Orkut and Opera Mini incompatibilities.  Just two months ago, Orkut started forcing Mini users to a rather limited mobile version of the site, a change that was very unpopular with users and was rolled back after about two weeks. Last November another Orkut change rendered Orkut scrapbooks unavailable to Opera Mini users, a gaffe that also took a couple of weeks to fix.

It almost  seems like Orkut doesn’t test site changes in Opera Mini.  Given the popularity of Opera Mini in Orkut’s second biggest market you would think that Google would do a better job of making sure the two are compatible, particularly as the two companies have a partnership to make Google the default Opera Mini search engine.

Unhappy users are complaining on the support forums of both Opera and Google.  No one identifying themselves as a Google representative has responded.  Opera’s tireless forum moderator, Marianne Spilling, “ManneS” has posted on the Opera forum saying “We’re aware of it, but it’s not our fault… You should rather report back to Google, probably the Orkut team.”

Based on past history it looks like users will need to wait a week or two to see this issue resolved.

30 thoughts on “Opera Mini Users Can’t Access Orkut

    • At the moment I don’t think any Opera version works with the full version of Orkut. Either use Bolt or UC Browser or use mobile Orkut with any version of Opera.

    • first go to pc and open orkut in new version then sign out orkut in new version…..after that go to mobile and open orkut you can acess in full size orkut in opera mini ……

  1. Hy me diva unble to uz orkut through operamini browser cud ny1 suggest how can i access it?help me plzz

  2. you can’t c the full page of orkut using opera mini is because of large size of orkut theme.change ur theme and try again.ur problem will b definitly solved.my issue solved now.

  3. i am gowtham i used to teashark browser last 3 months but now
    teashark is not working what the reason please give me some details

  4. this is all becouse of main#.
    now u can see main# added in the address of homepage..
    this may be due to upgradation on orkut server….only ids that have main# in the address of their homepage have problem in using om4.1…u cant solve this problem by canging browser to om3.1 or any other mobile browser

  5. im able to log in but i cant see full page…its showing me half of my home page….i cant move page to right hand side..do help

  6. Hey, I am still not able to use it on my Opera mini 4.1

    I am getting 403 forbidden error with the text which says “We’re Sorry but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can’t process your request right now.

    We’ll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, if you suspect that your computer or network has been infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your systems are free of viruses and other spurious software.

    We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we’ll see you again on Google.”

    Now who would like to see Google again in such a situation ???

  7. Orkut is now back on OM. Cheers :).
    My sincere thanks to ManneS at Opera and people at Google who helped in fixing the issue.

  8. ManneS, from the Opera Mini team has responded to the users, saying that they are in contact with Google regarding the issue. Hopefully the issue would be solved soon :)
    Originally quoted by ManneS at the Opera Mini Forum,
    “All I can say is that we are well aware of this, and in contact with Google. I can’t say more right now. Sorry! “

  9. i just spend rs 375 to get AIRTEL gprs settings on my mobile hopìng that i could use orkut via opera and the two O’s dissapoint me!!

  10. Hii even i had da same xperience………….Hope it’ll be resolved soon?????is der ne other way to log in orkut frm my nokia 6233????Guys pls help me…………

  11. Hey to all, u can try TeaShark browser for sometime unless problem is resolved…Just google it n go to its webpage for downloading…
    Good Luck…!!!

  12. To Dennis, Thanx for posting this article. I have been using Opera Mini & Orkut exactly 1 year, but never faced this kind of problem yet until last Friday.
    For time being I m using another browser named “TeaShark” in my old Nokia 6681, & it is quite comparable with Opera Mini in any case. Except for using it 2nd time after downloading & installing, it doesnt start at 2nd time. So I had to remove then download again just to check scraps in Orkut. Now u all can imagine how horrible it is…
    Anyway I pray to both Opera & Orkut to offer a solution to this “Google” problem.

  13. @aetern. So do i (or any other OM fan for that matter :D)
    The OM 4+ server (server version 4.1.xxx) still got something to learn from the good old OM 3- server(server version 1.0.xxx)
    But thats just My opinion :D.

  14. As a general workaround, one could use proxies like http://www.quickbrowsing.com or t9space.com(mentioned by Opera Mini forum member ‘nebulizer’) to get access to Orkut via OM 4.1.
    But that involves security related issues. Page rendering may be affected.

  15. If google realy wants to make orkut mobile popular then it has to work very hard on it.

  16. Thanks for the well rounded up article, Dennis :).
    It really hurts that the Google team has not responded yet.
    All we, the Opera Mini users are expecting is just an acknowledgement from them that they are aware of they issue and are working on it. It wont bother if they cant say when the issue would be fixed.
    Now the bottomline is, OM 4.1 is going to losing its users.
    You cant just say to an Indian Orkutter, “Forget Orkut until the Orkut team fixes this issue”. They would either use v3.1 or just another mobile browser out there.

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