Diving Deep Into The Microsoft So.Cl

Be So.cl while researching that’s what Microsoft wants to say with its brand new social research project aimed at students. Last, Thursday Microsoft has officially announced its new experimental site, dubbed as So.Cl (pronounced as “Social.) The So.Cl is developed by Microsoft’s FUSE Labs division and is now open to the students at the at the University of Washington, Syracuse University, and New York University an sooner more schools will be added. Earlier, it was known as Tulalip and has been testing with students from selected schools in the United States of America.

Though, people considering it as a Microsoft answer to Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus or Tumblr but instead it’s a social search service for students built on top of Facebook. In fact, Microsoft says that, “So.cl has been designed for students studying social media to extend their educational experience and rethink how they learn and communicate. They can build posts with many elements—photos, video, text, and more—and share them with colleagues.”

Right now, the So.Cl is in Beta stage and it’s still invite only. Fortunately, we’ve got an account to peep into the So.Cl and discover what’s new abilities Microsoft So.Cl is blessed with. So once you got the invite, then you can take log-in using your Facebook account. Once, you login you’ll be welcomed by a simple page, that helps you to get familiar with the interface by pointers and video tutorials. The Metro Style user interface of So.cl is simple, minimalistic and easy to use, we are sure within a few minutes, you’ll feel convenient to the interface. Microsoft is using similar Metro style UI in Windows Phone 7 and upcoming Windows 8.

However, the current So.Cl has got very few features, first is the feed – a mealtime time-line that shows, what you and your followers are searching for and what they’ve shared. Second feature is search, it’s a clean unified search with results delivered, obviously from Bing and by default all your search will be shared and in case if you didn’t want then you can make them private, too.

Suppose we’ve searched for “first Nokia Windows concept phone,” and it shows results from images, web pages and also from the So.cl feeds. Now here is the catch, we’ve searched for that concept Windows Phone and quickly we’ve share our search by selecting, an images, a webpage and put a message, and share it and all of your followers will see the update.

The most amazing about So.Cl, that you can create an elegant collage within few clicks. For instance, we’ve searched for our beloved “Steve Jobs,” and it shows all of his legendary photos, we’ve quickly select few of them and selected once of his quote and shared it-Wow! that’s faster as well as handy. If we use regular Google images, and choose some of the good of Steve’s memories, then download it to PC and photo-shopped them together to make a collage, then it could take more than 20 minutes, at least for me but here it’s almost instant, time-saving and beautiful.

Lastly, there’s a Video chat party where you can search for videos, add them to your play-list and start watching videos with your followers. For pure party experience, there’s no play pause, forward or reverse button. just start playing the video and yeah you can skip video in case you didn’t like it and jump to another video on the list. While, you are watching videos you can chat or discuss with your followers about the videos and enjoy the party.

So, that’s a short and quick overview of Microsoft So.cl and according to the user’s perspective it’s fairly new and easy way to research with group of friends, you search for something and your friend comment on it,  you find something useful then you can share it and you want to show something just make a collage and share. Great! indeed, could dramatically increase workforce productivity as collaborative research and group of people joining together, interacting with ideas always results into something more innovative.

Are you eager to get into the So.Cl, if so? then just leave your comments with your real mail-ids and we’ll sent you invites, make sure we’ve only five left into our account so first come and get first served!

Author Bio: Pranjal Gupta is the Co-founder at MRPinIndia.in, a price comparison shopping portal to get the best price in India with full specs of Mobiles, Tablet PCs and Cars.

https://www.webadvices.com/2011/12/microsoft-so-cl-network-review.html2011-12-21T18:22:26-06:00PranjalInternetBe So.cl while researching that's what Microsoft wants to say with its brand new social research project aimed at students. Last, Thursday Microsoft has officially announced its new experimental site, dubbed as So.Cl (pronounced as 'Social.) The So.Cl is developed by Microsoft's FUSE Labs division and is now open...PranjalPranjal Gupta[email protected]ContributorPranjal Gupta is the Co-founder at MRPinIndia.in, a price comparison shopping portal to get the best price in India with full specs of Mobiles, Tablet PCs and CarsWeb Advices