Just returned from a long vacation to see a new and exciting feature on orkut.
You can update your status by going to your own profile page.
A edit button (not shown in following screenshot) can be seen there just below "Home > My Profile" line.
When you click on it (edit button), you will see a single line textbox with update & cancel buttons, as shown below. The smiles on right side will be visible when you click on single smiley icon beside the line.
Facebook users will find this similar to status update feature out there.
Analysis of this feature
#Good Part…
- A feature like this is long awaited. So I guess orkut user will stop abusing first name and last name field they use for updates. So you can hope names like exam till 7th, going offline for a week, blah blah to disappear!
- Smiley option with updates to indicate your mood. So this is also like mood update!
#What can be improved…
- User should be able to update status from orkut homepage.
- A separate status feed for friends will be delight. Something like timeline will be appreciated.
- A separate tab can be added on recent updates box, beside existing Updates from my friends & My updates tabs.
- Connecting with Twitter updates as suggested by Darnell Clayton. I guess this is not possible with Orkut Apps and so orkut must do it officially.
#What about security?
- Don’t worry this box is XSS safe. Atleast it seems from my little testing!
- But URL should not be hyperlinked in status updates.
Thats it! I guess this feature is available to all of you by this time. If not it will come to you soon.
Thanks Pramod 
[...] This is another facebook like feature orkut team has given after status update feature. [...]
[...] Check some new features launched by orkut recently //OBSTART:do_NOT_remove_this_comment var [...]
Nice find Rahul
@Gaurav
Thanks Gaurav…
[...] contacts from orkut. On orkut, people used profile name fields for status updates in past, before orkut launched status update feature. So I have their weird contact names in my gmail contact [...]
[...] Orkut rolled out status update feature similar to facebooks’ status update feature. It will be great if they officially integrate [...]
[...] Posts Orkut Users Can Add Comments On PhotosOrkut Added Photo Tagging Feature!Orkut Added Facebook Like Status Updates Feature!Orkut Allows 10000 Photo Uploads in AlbumsNew Orkut Bug in “Updates from my friends” [...]