This is a research project out of MSR, not a product out of Microsoft proper. I'm still not exactly sure what it is that they're researching ("social search"? ¯\(°_o)/¯), but it does make a lot more sense as an off-the-wall experiment than a finished corporate product.<p><a href="http://www.so.cl/about" rel="nofollow">http://www.so.cl/about</a><p>> <i>Socl is a research project from Microsoft Research FUSE Labs...</i>
Why do one thing well, when you can do many things with tepid mediocrity?<p>Look what's happening to Microsoft's core business:<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mary-meeker-2012-internet-trends-year-end-update-2012-12#-24" rel="nofollow">http://www.businessinsider.com/mary-meeker-2012-internet-tre...</a><p>EDIT: You won me over cooldeal. (robotic voice) Clippy is better than Google Now. I will start using Bing.
HN conversation when they released the beta: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3999671" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3999671</a>
I'm genuinely curious to know when and where the trend of naming companies or products by removing the vowels or random letters from a word started from. I've seen it in a number of places. Why? Is it because if they use the full word, it becomes too general and difficult to associate?
I didn't dig around much to see if it has anything in the way of content filtering, but I loaded it up at work and was greeted with a page filled with scantily-clad ladies in suggestive poses. I work information security so I spend a decent amount of time evaluating risks associated with allowing certain sites at work and visiting random websites is not frowned upon for this reason, but as soon as I see suggestive materials I'm out of there.<p>Hey Microsoft, how about some content filtering turned on by default to hide potentially objectionable or NSFW materials? Also while I have your attention, why roll this out without any WP8 integration?
Potential NSFW warning: When I visited <a href="http://beta.so.cl/" rel="nofollow">http://beta.so.cl/</a>, I got a big eyeful of the image from the old goatse.cx<p>(in case anyone doesn't know what that is, here's a sfw explanation: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goatse.cx" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goatse.cx</a>)
I don't understand why they picked a really short domain "so.cl" and then redirect users to "www.so.cl" as soon as you hit it (which IMO looks kinda weird).
Oh look, a G+ clone...<p>MS is so inept at anything "social", it's sad they even keep trying (but I guess if you have enough monkeys banging away on a keyboard long enough, they'll eventually pound out the next FB "killer").<p>The Messenger+Live (aka. "Messenger social" from the site itself) is a comedy of errors -- has anyone signed into that recently? It's XP meets Vista meets Win8, but mostly just the annoying parts of each. And their "social forums"[1] are the worst forums that I've ever had the privilege of ignoring.<p>1. <a href="http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/" rel="nofollow">http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/</a>