Microsoft goes social

Microsoft, which owns a small part of Facebook, dipped its own toe in the online social scene with a low-key unveiling of its So.cl (pronounced "social") service. 


The site, which is for students to share interesting discoveries online, looks like a curious blend of Facebook and Google+.

Right now it's restricted to certain universities, and is a blend of web browsing, search (Bing, of course) and networking - including what it calls "video party". 


Here is the induction video of So.cl from Microsoft

Currently it is allowing to connect with Facebook account and showing thanks message joining. But it is still request for the invitation!!!

Developed by Microsoft's FUSE Labs, it is "an experimental research project focused on exploring the possibilities of social search for the purpose of learning."

In effect, Microsoft is trying to build on the fact that many students are looking for the same sorts of things online, and it gives them a way to put together and share their findings with other members interested in the same academic area.

We'll see if its young users stick to such a lofty goal.

Microsoft says it's not meant to replace Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, or to replace search engines. Indeed, you must log on with your Facebook account.

So far, Microsoft is restricting So.cl to the University of Washington, Syracuse University, New York University and a few other schools. But it says that anyone who wants to get more involved in the project should email them on Socl@microsoft.com.

Will So.cl be the first step of a greater social project under way at Microsoft? That's something it is not willing to share.

Design

Ignoring for the moment that the interface looks a lot like that other social network, Socl offers a bare bones, three column layout, with basic navigation in the left rail, a social feed down the middle, and invites and video party options (more on that soon) on the right. As usual, you can follow other friends, but you won't find any list-making tools. Core to the experience is the large search field at the top that asks, "What are you searching for?" effectively creating a new type of status update. You can also toggle the field to a traditional status update. With Socl, you've got the option to post to your feed either a note that you're searching for "live Prince covers" or that you're 'live at a Prince concert." Entering a search term or status update drops it into your feed with appropriate Bing results, where your friends will have the option to comment, like, or further tag it. Clicking 'tag' adds the search term to your personal list of tags, and you can sort your friends' searches and status updates by type (i.e. web, video, news, images).

Tagging

While tagging seems like a decent idea in theory — I theoretically want to track topics I'm interested in — I can't imagine going back to a simple tag search for news, browsing, or much of anything, really, and Socl's implementation doesn't advance what Google's doing with saved searches. I've got a mix of trusted friends, publications, and hundreds of RSS feeds to get a broad mix of focused news and information on topics I'm interested in, and tag searches for Politics, Film, or Technology, for example, aren't going to offer much. And, there's a big difference tagging an interest and actually searching. I might like the band Yo La Tengo, but I'm never searching only for that 'tag.' Instead, it'll be a Google-ese mix like 'yo la tengo scores ost 2008 album,' which isn't going to look good in any design and isn't really relevant to me or my followers outside of last Thursday night.

Video Party

And then, seemingly out of nowhere, Socl also includes a video party feature, complete with chat, for watching YouTube clips together (currently no support for Vimeo, DailyMotion, or any other services). It's a clean, intuitive UI, and aside from the lack of a controllable scrubber, it could be a fun service on its own. Socl is mostly built on HTML5 — we saw no instances of Silverlight or Flash — and the site showed no slowdown in Chrome or Firefox while video partying, searching, or tagging.

Social Search

I understand the push to make search a more social experience; Google's been trying for months with the +1 buttons littered across search results that are then integrated into Google+. Let's say you're searching for great burrito restaurants in San Francisco Mission District. Traditionally, you might check Yelp (or a similar service), trusted friends, regular search, or a mixture of all three. And this side of social networking generally works; people ask for recommendations all the time on Facebook and Twitter, and you often get great answers that search simply wouldn't have turned up. And, with social search, Microsoft is hoping that your friends will see your query and bring their expertise to it.

Wrap-up

Note that Socl is a research project, so it's possible that it won't ever get released as a mainstream product, but we're hearing it's still going to be tested publicly. Socl is starting late to the game, so it's no surprise that you can plug into the potential traffic firehose that is Facebook. While all of your searches and tags are visible to your friends on Socl, I've been told your Socl activity can be limited via Facebook's lists. Otherwise, there's not much here in the way of interacting privately with other users on Socl; no private messages, no @replies, and none of the curated, semi-private groups like Google's circles.
Socl ultimately needs to better show how yet another social network and search tool can help users find the information they're looking for; without mobile support or integration across the rest of the Microsoft world, Socl's got a big hill to climb. We're hearing Microsoft is nearing the end of its private testing period and will roll this out to a bigger public audience through an invite system. Stay tuned.