So.cl (pronounced 'social') is an experiment in open search, according to Microsoft
ARTICLE | MAY 22, 2012 - 7:10PM | BY RICHARD ESSIEN

The past weeks have been filled with Facebook related news, from the Facebook IPO to Mark Zukerberg's marriage to a longtime girlfriend, Priscilla Chan on Saturday, however, Microsoft has quietly launched its own social network which had been in development for almost a year.

This social network, called So.cl (pronounced 'social'), which launched in beta at the end of last year, was initially targeted at students to help them connect with one another – a concept that early adopters of Facebook know well and was well played out in the movie "Social Network"

However, Microsoft says So.cl “is an experimental research project, developed by Microsoft’s FUSE Labs, focused on exploring the possibilities of social search for the purpose of learning.” So.cl is not designed to compete with Facebook.

The primary focus of So.cl is helping “people find and share interesting web pages in the way students do when they work together”, by combining social networking and search.

Anything you search for on the So.cl network is viewable by other users and made available to third party developers. It sure seems like a direct competitor with Google+, which was Google's attempt at combining search with social networking. It certainly has similarities, but So.cl is ultimately an academic tool more than a
social one.

It allows users sign up using with either their Facebook or Windows Live profile. Microsoft had little choice but to leverage on Facebook's social graph, given that hardly anyone uses Windows Live (Microsoft's ID platform).

So.cl is a cross between Google+ and Storify. When it comes to using So.cl and finding value in it, the flaws become obvious. The Storify-like aggregation feature in So.cl is nifty, but everything else has been done before in numerous other social networks: posting, commenting, tagging, liking, sharing (two options: to Facebook or email!).

In reality, what So.cl offers is a network where posts are re-shared and users optionally add their own comment or content.

A noteworthy feature in So.cl is called 'video parties'. This is basically a video playlist with a chat area -- like YouTube's playlists. It's probably the most innovative feature in So.cl, but that isn't saying a lot. The reality is that Facebook or Google+ could easily replicate it, if they wanted to.