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A week after Microsoft integrated Facebook on Bing search results and a couple of days after Facebook IPO, Microsoft have launched their social network So.cl. So.cl (social) is presented as an experimental research project “focused on exploring the possibilities of social search for the purpose of learning.” Members of the new social network are invited to share with others their searches and their finds, discover like-minded people and web pages and create “video parties” a webcam get-together similar to Google Plus Hangouts.

Social search is apparently Microsoft’s network unique characteristics. “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 also allows you create Pinterest-like posts with images borrowed from the (social) search results.

How to Open So.cl Account

Registration to Microsoft social network is open to everyone from this week. You can register using your Facebook or your Windows Live account. After registration you will be asked to feed your feed by adding friends and interests, update your profile and choose the desirable username that will be added to the profile URL. Unlike other social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus, an outsider who would click on the user’s profile URL will get nothing but his profile picture and will not be able to see any of his recent posts.

The social search aspect is felt when reaching the feed page, which invites the user to type a search query and then click on the (visual) items he wishes to add to a post.

 From So.cl

Sharing links on the social network is more complicated then what we are used to and sharing pictures is impossible according to Marketing Land Danny Sullivan. This writer’s attempts to join the social network have led to an error page.

Microsoft’s somewhat odd decision to launch a social network right after its social engine, that is Bing, has joined forces with the largest social network online, that is Facebook, becomes clearer once learning that is an experimental research on social search. Currently, it seems as So.cl tries to resemble Pinterest and to draw ideas from Google Plus.