The fact that Microsoft has decided to challenge Facebook, Google Plus (and several other social sites) is not a surprise, especially given the humongous size of the social network market. But what is relatively surprising to many experts is the way it was launched, with very little promotion online or offline. In fact, it was originally launched several months ago to a select few universities and has only recently begun to gain some traction.
According to the company, So.cl is simply a new research product that's focused on social learning and does not want to compete directly with social tech giant Facebook. It allows users to bookmarke (save) web pages and share them with friends. It also features a pretty cool "video party" app that allows for group video chats.
Probably the best (and most unique) feature of the So.cl is how it allows user to create more advanced posts. On the site you can use videos, photos, and text to create rich content and then share it with a chosen lists of friends and contacts. It's also designed to connect people with similar interests and allow them to form common-interest communities on the site.
Still, the site does not hope to replace Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or even Myspace any time soon. The goal right now, according to Bill Gates's technology giant, is to simply add a new layer of information on top of existing social networks. In a statement released yesterday they state:
"We hope to encourage students to reimagine how our everyday communication and learning tools can be improved by researching, learning and sharing in their everyday lives."We say: Sounds pretty cool to us. Facebook really needs some good competition and Microsoft could give it to them if they really try. They just need to create some unique functionality that's not found on FB, Twitter, HI5, Myspace, etc!
Learn some mo': Microsoft launches a 'social search' network
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