After Google tried it against Facebook with Google+, Microsoft is now also trying its luck: with socl.com. The offer is supposed to be a mixture of Google+ and Facebook, whereby the focus is supposed to be more on search than on maintaining contacts. Microsoft does not have it easy: on the one hand, the site does not work at the moment (17.11., 20:00), on the other hand, the integration of other Microsoft services as well as a mobile application is missing.
But the most important question is: why another network? Google+ already has a hard time against Facebook and can set accents in some functions - for example through the +1 support in the search. Whether Microsoft is now planning something similar with Bing is still open. And whether users will be found for the new platform, somehow Microsoft will have to set itself apart from the already more or less established competitors; the question is how long the Redmond company is willing to finance a product that still has to prove (to everyone, including Facebook and Google) that it is worth the money.
In the end, several networks may lead to the transfer of data between the platforms being made possible and the users having more influence over the use of the data. It would also help data protection if one of the competitors wanted to make a name for itself and was the first to introduce and implement particularly user-friendly rules. We will see how Microsoft behaves - standing out with data protection would be the last thing one would trust the Windows manufacturer to do.
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