The Socl, according to the official announcement that Microsoft released recently, is a tool aimed at students interested in learning more about social networking.
According to the description of the site, So.cl was developed by FUSE Labs, a research arm of Microsoft. The focus of the network is "exploring the possibilities of social search for the purpose of learning" and that social search is, of course, powered by Bing. There is a lame motion on the home page which shows more or less how the network works, but is in WebM and only newer browsers can see.
What made it known so far is that the So.cl will serve initially for students to better understand social media as a social network works. The company blog post says that students can "build posts with various elements such as photos, text, videos and more - and share them with colleagues." Sounds intriguing.
The So.cl that accompanies the current social networks have been doing lately: By default all the posts are marked as public and there is also an element of video, the Video Party, which allows you to share clips with several people at once. This last item would be the Microsoft version of Google Hangout, I would say, but without integration with webcams, only chat.
She goes in one respect, however. According to the FAQ, "the So.cl links automatically shares as soon as you search." This is to show users that the network can discover new interests through this share. Sounds both interesting and a little weird, but I need to see in place before judging this functionality.
The social network is in closed beta testing and so far the three American college students: the New York University, the University of Washington and Syracuse University. There's no predicting when it will be open to the rest of us mortals.
According to the description of the site, So.cl was developed by FUSE Labs, a research arm of Microsoft. The focus of the network is "exploring the possibilities of social search for the purpose of learning" and that social search is, of course, powered by Bing. There is a lame motion on the home page which shows more or less how the network works, but is in WebM and only newer browsers can see.
What made it known so far is that the So.cl will serve initially for students to better understand social media as a social network works. The company blog post says that students can "build posts with various elements such as photos, text, videos and more - and share them with colleagues." Sounds intriguing.
The So.cl that accompanies the current social networks have been doing lately: By default all the posts are marked as public and there is also an element of video, the Video Party, which allows you to share clips with several people at once. This last item would be the Microsoft version of Google Hangout, I would say, but without integration with webcams, only chat.
She goes in one respect, however. According to the FAQ, "the So.cl links automatically shares as soon as you search." This is to show users that the network can discover new interests through this share. Sounds both interesting and a little weird, but I need to see in place before judging this functionality.
The social network is in closed beta testing and so far the three American college students: the New York University, the University of Washington and Syracuse University. There's no predicting when it will be open to the rest of us mortals.
