Microsoft's so.cl experiment includes video sharing, group chat

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT)'s FUSE Labs has rolled out a semi-social website called, appropriately, so.cl, which combines web browsing, search and networking into one package. Microsoft describes So.cl, pronounced "social," as "an experimental research project... focused on exploring the possibilities of social search for the purpose of learning."

So.cl video parties let you search and assemble lists of movies to view with friends.

The site combines social networking and search, to help people find and share interesting web pages in the way students do when they work together. So.cl also allows "video parties," where users can search and quickly assemble a list of movies to view with friends. Users can view any existing party collection created by any other So.cl user, create their ownand easily chat with other So.cl users... very Google+-like.

So far, it's been restricted to a limited rollout at the University of Washington, Syracuse University, New York University and a few other schools. The site is accessed through Facebook, of which Microsoft owns a piece.

Microsoft, since its $8.5 billion purchase of VoIP provider Skype earlier this year, is likely to look for more ways to more deeply integrate that product with other like so.cl and Facebook.

For more:
- see the website
- see this Reuters article

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