Microsoft Keeps Following in Google’s Footsteps – Meet So.cl, Brand’s New Social Network by Andrea Skarica

Everybody wants their piece of the social cake and So.cl is Microsoft’s attempt to become social. Five months ago Microsoft launched their social research platform for students and it was available only on a few universities in the USA, such as Washington University and New York University. Five months ago we wrote about So.cl’s test version which went live yesterday with just minor changes and now it is available to public worldwide. First, you will be put on a waiting list but full access should be granted to you in less than a day. So.cl remains focused on students and is encouraging them to share their online research and collaborate with their colleagues by starting a video party as Microsoft’s version of Google+’s Hangouts is called.

As you can see on the photo above it is even possible to log into So.cl with your Facebook or your Microsoft Live account. When you do log in, So.cl invites you to build your feed with topics you’re interested in following and it is even asking you to invite your Facebook friends to join you on the new social network.

Unlike Facebook, So.cl is not asking you What’s on your mind?, but What are you interested in? where you can again find a resemblance with Pinterest. So.cl users will benefit from a complete integration with Microsoft’s Bing search engine and they will be able to store everything that they have been researching for on their profile. Actually, if you don’t change your privacy settings everybody who visits your profile will also see what you have been researching, so you might want to change that before you start.

We can keep asking if there’s room for any new social media platforms. I think Pinterest has proved us all that there is, but is there room on the market for copycats?

We would like to invite you to try out So.cl and decide if there’s room for them in your day.