it’s actually been around for a little while now. i remember first hearing of it about a year ago, and according to this [1] they launched a private beta back i

it’s actually been around for a little while now. i remember first hearing of it about a year ago, and according to this [1] they launched a private beta back in december 2011 as for how serious they are, i’d say not really, at least in terms of building-out a viable network to compete with the likes of a facebook. i get the impression that it's more of a large-scale research effort with a focus on integrating social in a more meaningful way, particularly as it relates to search i think this [from the source below] sums it up pretty well: Microsoft officials have described Socl as a kind of mash-up of social-networking and search that is designed to get the learning communities to start thinking about how to use collaboration technologies in new ways. And according to the Softies and contrary to popular rumors, Socl is not an attempt to take on Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler or Pinterest. Socl combined ideas the FUSE Labs teams have pioneered in some of their other experimental projects, like Montage (a photo collage app) and Kodu (game programming). Microsoft built Socl using TypeScript, its superset of JavaScript. [1] http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-opens-its-socl-social-search-site-to-any-and-all-testers-7000008291/ http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-opens-its-socl-social-search-...