The controversy over the Brazilian invasion of Orkut is yet another ugly reminder of American provincialism. Here’s an example from the article:

“When the average Orkut user goes to look at community listings to see what’s out there, he’ll see a list populated with pretty much all Portuguese communities,” [John] Gibbs said. “This is highly frustrating since Orkut is not a Brazilian service.” For those Americans who make their living developing Web applications, the fact that this stuff is catching on in a huge way around the world is the best news possible.

All I can say in response to that is just, die. I could type up some long lecture about Brazilians having as much right to use the service as anyone else, and so forth, but we should really be beyond that at this point, shouldn’t we? For those of us who make a living building Web applications, growing interest in the Web is absolutely great news.