Microsoft opens beta of Socl social-search site to all comers
Microsoft is opening up its Socl social-networking research project, but there are still no public plans as to when, how, or if Microsoft will take Socl commercial.
On December 4, Microsoft's FuSE team took the wraps off the redesigned user experience of its Socl social-search project and opened up the beta to anyone who wants to test drive it.
Microsoft first went public with the Socl project in December 2011. Originally available to invited testers only, the Microsoft social network has been in testing primarily among Microsoft employees and students in information and design schools at a few universities.
Microsoft officials have described Socl as a kind of mash-up of social-networking and search that is designed to get the learning communities to start thinking about how to use collaboration technologies in new ways. And according to the Softies and contrary to popular rumors, Socl is not an attempt to take on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or Pinterest.
Socl combined ideas the FuSE Labs teams have pioneered in some of their other experimental projects, like Montage (a photo-collage app) and Kodu (game programming). Microsoft built Socl using TypeScript, its superset of JavaScript.
"The way people were using Socl was different than we designed it," said Lili Cheng, general manager of FuSE (Future Social Experiences) Labs. "Our idea is to democratize design and make beautiful posts."
Socl brings image search to prominence. A new navigation bar helps users create posts more simply and to find elements like common interest pages. (An image of the redesigned Socl site, provided by Microsoft, is embedded at the top of this post.) Users can create "parties," where participants can create playlists, watch videos, and chat together from inside the site.
Cheng said that in the past year, the target audience for Socl broadened beyond university students. That said, Microsoft is not making a concerted effort to target Socl at new or different demographics. Socl is still a research project with no public timetable as to when or if Microsoft will attempt to commercialize it in its entirety or piece parts.
"Search for most people is still mostly about the blue links. Images are secondary," Cheng said. Socl reverses the priorities. And one result is people who speak different languages find they can still communicate, Cheng said.
Speaking of blue, here's my first attempt at going Socl:
(And yes, the wig is from my disguise bag. In case you were wondering.)
To try out the new update, users should go to http://beta.so.cl and authenticate with Facebook or Microsoft ID.
This story originally appeared on ZDNet under the headline "Microsoft opens its Socl social-search site to any and all testers."