Microsoft takes the wraps off of So.cl, a search-based social network for students.

A few months back we got a quick sneak peek at Microsoft's social experiment which was, at the time, called Tulalip. Now it's finally gone official and scored an even harder to pronounce name So.cl. The basic premise is this: you sign up and search for stuff (using Bing, naturally) and your queries are automatically shared with your friends. From there things get even stranger. The Video Party feature lets users group chat while watching the same clip online, but there's no video chat. You also can't upload photos, but you can make a "montage" of images collected from around the web. To kick start what Microsoft sees as less of a social and more of a learning network, the company has partnered with NYU, Syracuse and the University of Washington. Hit up the source link for more details and to add your name to the waiting list -- for now Redmond's social search toy is in a limited beta.