Microsoft New Social Networking Site | SOCIAL

A new social networking. Now this time from Microsoft. Microsoft officially launched their social network known as So.cl (pronounced “social”). So.cl was established with students in mind and was first made available as a beta to those enrolled at the University of Washington, Syracuse University and New York University late last years.Since So.cl borrows and builds from a bevvy of existing sites -- and doesn't aim to replace sites such as Facebook and Twitter -- it has the potential to take off, especially among its target audience.

So.cl allows individuals to network with their peers and share useful information from both inside and outside of the classroom.

So.cl is education-driven project and developed by Microsoft Research’s FUSE Labs and takes a different approach to social networking.

Well, at least that was the original idea. Now that So.cl is available to everyone, it’s likely that shared topics will stray from purely educational material into more general themes.

On paper, it’s actually starting to sound a lot like Pinterest where people simply post neat things that they like. If it proves to be successful, Microsoft could have a real winner on their hands although at some point they might want to shy away from the “educational” theme.

To use So.cl, users must sign in with either their Facebook or Windows Live account to get started. From here they are free to post photos, videos, text or even start a video party to discuss findings with friends.