orkut.com began issuing virtual medals next to names on orkut profiles a few years ago to show that certain profiles were orkut-certified. The orkut team later started granting them to recognize certain users' contributions on our orkut Help Forum. If you haven't visited our Help Forum yet, check it out! It's a great place to post questions and info about orkut.
Medals are issued or removed by the orkut team at our discretion. We don't add them to profiles upon request.
