Microsoft launches So.cl platform

23rd May 2012

Microsoft has launched a new online network, called So.cl, which the company says is focused on ‘exploring the possibilities of social search for the purpose of learning’.

It aims to bring search and social networking closer together, allowing users to share and comment on results they find useful or interesting.

According to Microsoft:

• So.cl helps users to create rich posts, by assembling montages of visual web content.
• So.cl combines social networking and search, to help people find and share interesting web pages in the way students do when they work together.
• So.cl provides rich media sharing, and real time sharing of videos via ‘video parties’ to encourage interaction and collaboration.

The product has been launched quietly, with news coverage very much focused on Facebook’s stock market debut instead.

Microsoft also seemed to quash talk of So.cl being a key competitor to the main social networks, saying that it expects students to continue using products such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn alongside the service.

Users can sign in using either their Facebook or Windows Live login details, and those wishing to try the service can do so by visiting http://www.so.cl/.