Google’s first social network was Orkut, launched in 2004.
Orkut was created by Google engineer Orkut Büyükkökten and launched on January 22, 2004. Users could create profiles, connect with friends, join communities, and exchange testimonials and scraps.
The service became especially popular in Brazil and India, even though it never achieved the same global scale as Facebook. Google later launched other social products, including Google Buzz in 2010 and Google+ in 2011, but those were not the company’s first social network.
Google shut down Orkut on September 30, 2014. Its strong regional popularity is why the service is often remembered differently depending on a reader’s country and online experience.