Google’s social networking website, Orkut will now offer a host of new features and applications all designed with an aim to enhance the end-user experience.

The new look Orkut will allow users to discover friends automatically, video chat which will be integrated with Google Talk, upload photos in bulk very quickly, add/view photos and videos in-line as well as a more interactive activity stream.

The enhancements have been made using the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) which enables features such as built-in simultaneous chat, photo tagging with automatic face detection, private sharing of photo albums, safety features, and Orkut™ for iPhone™, S60 and J2ME-based mobile phones.

Personalizes features such as posting video testimonials, changing colours of content boxes will also be provided.

Google India -- said “Orkut is an integral part of Google’s larger social web strategy which allows users to interact, engage and collaborate. We are committed to evolve our offerings to ensure the best user experience on all our platforms. The new Orkut experience is built from scratch on one of the latest, fast and flexible technology platforms which will enable us to roll out exciting new features during the next few months.”

Initially the new version will be on select invitation basis and subsequently will be provided to all users.