Private communities for your work or school

Communities on orkut come in all shapes and sizes. Large, open communities are great for meeting new people and getting news on topics you care about, while smaller ones help you keep in touch with friends and people from your school or work. When we launched private communities several months ago , we let community owners decide who could access content in their communities -- all orkut users or just members of those specific communities. Recently, we added additional functionality to let you create communities that are only open to people who share your email domain. For example, I have an @google.com email address for work, so I could create a community that is only accessible to those who also have @google.com email addresses.

How does it work? First, enter the email address for the domain you share with your classmates or colleagues into the contacts tab of your profile. When creating a new community, simply choose the "validated - email validation required" option, then select the domain from the drop down box. Anyone who wants to join the community will first be required to validate his or her email address from that domain before being allowed to join.