News - Microsoft wants you to get social with so.cl

[HEXUS]

Social network dressed up as an experimental research project, or vice versa?

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[Spud1]

Semi interesting project this one, but I am still not really sure what it's there for.

It's not really a social network - which is the right move as we really don't need someone else trying to get into that market, and Google's Monumental failure with Google+, or Apples failure with Ping clearly show. Microsoft have their own (largely failed) attempt out already with Live.

I like the concept and it's something I might use (I will certainly take a look) - I personally dislike facebook immensley these days, it really went downhill from a UX perspective when Apps invaded, and the recent switch to "timeline" just makes it downright difficult to use. So the idea of having a consolidation layer sitting above facebook where I can still talk to/see updates from my facebook friends, but without all the pain that facebook itself brings..that appeals. Being able to link that up to linked.in etc too is a nice plus point for me. Hmm actually that sounds rather like the "people" app on my WP7 - which is one of it's best features, and also appears as a Metro App in win 8...

Remains to be seen if that's what it really is or if I have mis understood, but Microsoft Research do tend to stick to sensible, interesting projects - I can't see them being daft enough to try and create another social network so it's gotta be different!


edit: Ignore what I said above - it stil requires you to add friends/people rather than just your account and using data from it So I am struggling to see the point atm..if anyone figure it out let me know!

[OilSheikh]

Ditto as Spud1