Microsoft will close So.cl, its very low-key social network, on March 15.
Microsoft soft-launched So.cl to students only in May 2012 and billed it as an "experiment in social search" because posts always started with a Bing search. The service was made available to anyone in December 2012 and then ... crickets.
The service has scarcely been heard of since and if Microsoft has ever revealed user numbers, it appears to have done so in private. Statistics-selling service Statista doesn't include So.Cl on its list of the 22 most-used social networks, so it seems safe to assume that So.cl had fewer than 49 million users, the figure attached to messaging called Kakaotalk. Probably orders of magnitude fewer.
So.cl's death notice offers no explanation for its closure, but does say that running the network taught Microsoft "... invaluable lessons in what it takes to establish and maintain community as well as introduce novel new ways to make, share and collect digital stuff we love."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by PinkyGigglebrain on Saturday March 11 2017, @08:03AM
Have to agree, I have one of those Microsoft "Natural Keyboard Elite" ergonomic keyboards. It almost 17 years old and still works great.
Only MS product I've ever loved.
And it works great with Linux :D
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."