Microsoft launches so.cl

Here's what I observed<p>- Very slow response time to requests to the server. (4x of Facebook response time)<p>- Serious usability and JavaScript problems.<p>- Main point did not made clear. Just signed up, auto-followed 12 friends and still no idea what to do with it or why would I use it.<p>- Back button does not work at some cases with AJAX URLs with URL hashes (.../#/foo). Breaking the web experience.

&#62; So.cl (pronounced "social")<p>💩 (pronounced "so-dot-cl")<p>Sorry, couldn't resist. Microsoft should really stop underpaying their marketing people so that they would stop producing kaka for branding. If Bing was a red flag, this is really someone having a field day. How would they <i>ever</i> settle on "s-o-dot-k-l" being "pronounced social" is beyond me. The logo looks like a diver with snorkel tube on a side. The /S/ is completely f#cked up in terms of glyph design, it is unbalanced and appears to be falling to the left. A wordmark that looks like retarded smiley that lacks any sort of concept subtlety, and a name that sounds like a chemical compound, based off a poisonous gas that was unleashed by sneaky Germans during WWI. Perfect all over.

Google execs are breathing a sigh of relief, now when asked about Google+ usage they can say "... could be worse, look at so.cl"

Sadly, this site has some security vulnerabilities. Although I have reported them to Socl@microsoft.com, I am not sure if my message will reach its intended destination as the "support" forum is inaccessible to me.<p>Just typing this out in case a member of MS Research is reading along and wants to contact me directly.<p>Edit: Just got a reply after less than 5 minutes had passed. They are notified and take appropriate steps. :-)

The technology doesn't attract people - people attract people. Microsoft have yet again missed the basic concept of social networking. Is it really that difficult to figure out?<p>As so.cl has no users, it can hardly be considered a social network. So far it's just a shell of a website with nothing to attract anyone into it.<p>If you wanna break into the social networking industry, stop creating useless technology and start creating communities.

Since this is from Lili Cheng's team, I suspect this is a MSR/Labs effort as opposed to a full-blown 'product'. That team is spectacular -she built one of the first social networks to ever exist - Wallop, all the way back in 2003-2004.

Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work at all. The Done button after "I have read the terms.. " didn't work and then the build your popup box was loading for infinite time (yes infinite). The top bar looks very much like Google's!

<p><pre><code> Sign in to So.cl with Facebook </code></pre> Or you could, you know, just sign in to facebook directly.

So, it's Facebook meets Pinterest meets Schemer? Looks interesting. I like how they go out of their way to assuage privacy fears on the login page ("Socl does not share your searches etc on Facebook").<p>Also, I hate to be that guy, but it should be "its" in the title.

Incredibly difficult to use. I tried sharing a link, and it worked nothing like I expected, and involved at least 4 attempts.

<p><pre><code> So.cl (pronounced "social") is an experimental research project, developed by Microsoft’s FUSE Labs, focused on exploring the possibilities of social search for the purpose of learning. </code></pre> Sounds surprisingly interesting... Also surprised by the "Login with Facebook" option, but I guess it makes some sense if it's just a research project.

&#62; Start a video party<p>Don't know if anyone remembers netmeeting. Microsoft basically discovered chatroulette back in 1998 already, although the results must have freaked them out - lots of naked people. Wonder if they've changed their views this time?

Thumbs up to their logo. The little smiley face is extremely friendly and inviting.

There is Microsoft Research label. Sound more like an experiment to me.

I just registered to say that the "remember me on this computer" checkbox on teh front page does not use a &#60;label&#62;. Whenever I see stuff like this (on a brand new website nonetheless!) I lose more hope we will see consistent and semantic website markup.

This is just another example of why Microsoft is never going to succeed - trying to force yourself into a market almost always produces a poor product. Microsoft is always going to be losing to the startups which evolve a product from an actual want.

well, whenever MS makes a product that everyone thinks is inferior and will never make it, I like to recall msn messenger, and of course ie<p>messenger competed vs icq which had more features, large user base, icq was the facebook of the time, yet somehow mysteriously msn messenger took over<p>give it time, facebook is becoming icq, ppl who are complaining about the interface are only increasing and its very possible that could switch<p>a note about G+ i believe a big reason why it didnt catch up and where MS may have got it better, is the branding SOCL is not windowsLive+ or hotmail+ its a completely new brand with its easy to find url ... G+ is harder to find because its integrated into the google brand

Honestly, this feels pretty unpolished and lacking features.<p>The video parties thing seems interesting, but is essentially Hangouts without the person-to-person video chat (that I could find).<p>Oh well.

My 'Everyone' feed seems to have stopped working. I've also just had a javascript alert popup with an error...<p>Also irritated I can't sign in with Twitter.

The really weird thing for me at the end of the "See how it works" video is the "A new research experience for students" message.

Requires javascript. Yells at me that I need to enable javascript if I go there. Doesn't explain <i>why</i> I might want to enable javascript, or hint at what their doubtless valuable javascript-mediated experience might be, or even show me an ad or a press release. <i>Does</i> try to load javascript libraries from other domains, so that even if I create an exception for so.cl I get the same error message.<p>Is this <i>really</i> a constructive way to build custom in this day and age?

They literally lower the quality of competition by just duplicating other social networks.

Anyone got screens? The website shows up as a blank screen on my tablet.

This seems like Google +1 but with the ability to comment/discuss?

I wonder if Google+ bashing will target so.cl now. Probably not because Microsoft was clever enough to launch it quietly and call it 'experiment' not 'Facebook killer'.

with a domain like that, I had expectations of an awesome URL shortener. I wonder how much they paid for the domain?

Another Microsoft "me too".

DOA because no mobile site.

Uh, on a Sunday? Weird.

Yawn.

Yikes. This is a really blatant mash of Google+/FB with no mobile presence and an enormous identity crisis. They even basically straight up stole "circles" and even use "Circles" as the bullet icon for the &#60;ul&#62; displaying them under "Feed". The "dropdown popup" on each post looks pixel for pixel identical to G+'s, "Video Party" = Hangout (which would be hard to beat anyway as Hangouts are impressive if you've not used them lately and will soon be 100% plugin free), FB's "What's on your mind" = So.cl's "What is on your mind".<p>Is there anything new or original here at all, except for some bad "text as images" and other MSN/Live/Microsoft account styling cues? Good god, this is just, embarrassing.

Microsoft R&#38;D delivers again. Name one feature in so.cl that wasn't a copy of what they already saw somebody else do, except given a slightly different name or capitalization in order to shave off the boilerplate. Is there anything left from Google/Apple/Facebook/Amazon/Sony for them to copy, er, I mean, innovate in-house?<p>I also bet they'll claim it took a team of 50 people and cost $1B to create. Because taxes and accounting, of course.