Almost every few months, a new social network lands in the world-wide web. Microsoft too dabbled its hands in this genre and came up with Socl, the long-lost social networking site. Socl was a Microsoft Research experiment; however the folks in-charge decided to publish it publicly for common users. Result? It hardly made a difference.
Maybe in order to prevent it from going into oblivion, Fuse Labs announced a makeover of the whole site and its features, terming it as the new ‘Spring 2013 Collection’. A summary of what’s new in this overhaul is as follows:
- Simplified site navigation allows users to create a post button, search the complete site for a particular query/profile, access frequently-visited services like messages, settings etc. more easily through pinned menu options, refresh the page by clicking the centered Socl logo and more.
- Users can now drag and drop items into their post, resize, shuffle and share the content with other social networks too.
- Socl now features private messaging service, in-line editing of profile information and a reformed, smooth user experience.
Though Socl can be lauded as a great experiment from Redmond, but is it successful in creating a constant user base and serving its purpose? The answer is of course ‘No’ as in the era of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn et al, Socl doesn’t feature as a favourite. Facebook is the second home for more than 900+ million users around the world; Twitter is instrumental in creating trends and connecting millions of users through 140 words; Pinterest and LinkedIn are slowly climbing up the ladder. Oh yes, and there’s Google+ too.
The competition seems cut-throat and the user-base seems crowded. Hence, it is skeptical whether Socl will be able to climb a few rungs up the popular social network ladder with its ‘Spring 2013 Collection’.
All we can say is – Good luck!
