Posted on May 26, 2012 at 5:11 am
Facebook and Google + have quickly established themselves as being some of the best social networks on the web. Now, Microsoft has entered the ring with their very own so.cl network. Social network, of course is a very broad term that refers to an online community. The last thing some people may want to do right now is join another social network, but Microsoft?s new offering is a bit different.
To get started using Microsoft?s latest web service, jump to the socl homepage at URL so.cl. From there, sign-in to the social network using your existing Facebook or Windows Live or Hotmail account.
Like many other web based apps and networks these days that use SSO, you will need to allow permission in order use socl. Click the Yes button to begin using the service.
Once you have completed the registration steps, you will be presented with the socl homepage, an online dashboard for the network. Like many other Microsoft services such as Windows Phone and Windows 8, socl is tile like in design (optimized for touch screens).
Being a somewhat unique search engine, so.cl is more search based then the other popular social networks. So, let?s jump into using the search function.
The majority of navigation and usage on the website revolves around the main search bar which prompts you to search for things that you are interested in. Simply enter any search term into the What are you interested in? bar and start searching.
From here, socl will present live search results for the search query, listing a variety of different matches. The search results are composed of different types of results, such as people, things, and more. You can select a suggested search from the prompts or simply hit the enter button on your keyboard to perform a generic search.
When performing a generic search, the website will present you with a variety of different results. These results could be from the socl community or from the web via Bing.
From the above screenshot, notice how the socl social network draws Bing image results, relevant results from social network members and even Bing web search results for search queries.
However, most of these search results have a new Add to Post button which adds more social integration.
Clicking the ADD TO POST button simply saves your favorite items to a dedicated posts section that is built-in to the website. Here are some posts that have been added.
Basically, the posts lists allows you to save links and other content on socl to a dedicated spot where you can access them later; kind of, social bookmarking.
On a side note, check out this Bacon Vodka that I was able to find from the variety of search results on bacon.
That?s kind of what this social network is for, discovering content and search results in a different way. This bacon vodka is actually an individual post by a socl community user. This social network?s search can query individual posts by actual users.
As far as social integration, you would expect a website named socl to have some cool features. The social feed for the website consists of a community feed that queries updates from everyone on socl. This helps you explore more diverse content that is trending around the website.
However, it is also sortable by people you follow, your interests and more.
Another unique feature that socl offers is Parties. Video Parties are currently some of the most popular.
From the above screenshot, note that parties allow for online social interaction through real time. Thus, you can host a party and invite others to check out some of your recommended or favorite videos.
Those are just a few of several unique features that Microsoft?s socl social network offers. Overall, this is a unique take on a social network that many people may like. With socl, you can follow your friends (similar to Twitter), save your favorite interests (similar to Pinterest), post directly to a profile and customize a news feed (similar to Facebook), entire website feed (similar to MySpace), but it also has reposting features similar to (tumblr). While socl is similar to other social networks in some ways, it also offers unique features like Parties, and because it is so integrated into search, it is able to offer different aspects from all over the web that would not normally be found in a social network.
The settings for so.cl are some of the most simple and user friendly of any social network to date. However, they are a bit limited and do not yet offer as many customizations and settings as the other social networks.
Thank you for stopping by the site for today?s post, which hopefully provided you with a quality tour of the new socl website, so that you can now decide if it is a social network worth joining. Overall, the potential for a website like this is pretty good, and this website could catch on. With all of the web search technology that is built-in to this website, it is in it?s own right, unique.
? Filed Under Industry News
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