This is a research project out of MSR, not a product out of Microsoft proper. I'm still not exactly sure what it is that they're researching ("social search"? ¯\(°_o)/¯), but it does make a lot more sense as an off-the-wall experiment than a finished corporate product.
Why take the time to write an insightful comment on the actual news at hand when you can score brownie points with yet another knee jerk 'MS is dying' comment linking to blog spam that further links to one graph that somehow proves your point?
I'm genuinely curious to know when and where the trend of naming companies or products by removing the vowels or random letters from a word started from. I've seen it in a number of places. Why? Is it because if they use the full word, it becomes too general and difficult to associate?
I believe the success of flickr.com (registered in 2003, launched in 2004) kicked off the current vogue for these names, though there are earlier examples too:
Misspelled words -- especially shortened ones -- have certain persistent advantages as names for web companies. It's easier to find available domains; it's a unique word for search engines; it's short and therefore quick to type.
Of course there are disadvantages too... Twitter was originally called "Twttr" when it launched in 2006, but later restored the vowels:
I didn't dig around much to see if it has anything in the way of content filtering, but I loaded it up at work and was greeted with a page filled with scantily-clad ladies in suggestive poses. I work information security so I spend a decent amount of time evaluating risks associated with allowing certain sites at work and visiting random websites is not frowned upon for this reason, but as soon as I see suggestive materials I'm out of there.
Hey Microsoft, how about some content filtering turned on by default to hide potentially objectionable or NSFW materials? Also while I have your attention, why roll this out without any WP8 integration?
"Above the fold" photos of severely/epic photoshopped boobs, etc. Scrolling a little further down I was greeted with photos of poop. Lots of them. I'll skip what there were photos of on the next page.
Suffice to say, I am sure there are a ton of Internet trolls taking advantage of the lack of filtering, and they want to make the site look bad. Hopefully MS can put some type of fix on that sooner than later. Otherwise, I assume some early adopters might be turned off just from going to the home page.
I don't understand why they picked a really short domain "so.cl" and then redirect users to "www.so.cl" as soon as you hit it (which IMO looks kinda weird).
so.cl is a short enough domain that some browsers might forbid it from setting cookies, since it's the same length as .co.uk (and letting sites set cookies for the whole .co.uk space would be a massive privacy violation).
Yeah, I'm kind of surprised too. I try to keep an eye out for these things and this is the first I've heard of it. It makes me wonder how serious they are about this.
[+] [-] lmkg|13 years ago|reply
http://www.so.cl/about
> Socl is a research project from Microsoft Research FUSE Labs...
[+] [-] adamnemecek|13 years ago|reply
Here are the names of her last 4 papers:
- "Networked Trafficking: Reflections on Technology and the Anti-Trafficking Movement."
- "Making Sense of Teen Life: Strategies for Capturing Ethnographic Data in a Networked Era."
- "The New War Correspondents: The Rise of Civic Media Curation in Urban Warfare."
- "Sociality through Social Network Sites."
[+] [-] paulsutter|13 years ago|reply
Look what's happening to Microsoft's core business:
http://www.businessinsider.com/mary-meeker-2012-internet-tre...
EDIT: You won me over cooldeal. (robotic voice) Clippy is better than Google Now. I will start using Bing.
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] cooldeal|13 years ago|reply
What about this news then? http://www.winbeta.org/news/windows-8-overtakes-android-web-...
How does that fit in with the graph you posted?
Statistics are like bikinis, they hide more than what they reveal.
However, this being the top comment on this article says more than about HN than you.
[+] [-] theklub|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] iso-8859-1|13 years ago|reply
They won't make launch anything that used to have that brand, people wouldn't use a product that was already discontinued.
[+] [-] sk55|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jborden13|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Mutinix|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mbrubeck|13 years ago|reply
http://www.branddialogue.com/diablogue/2006/06/names-that-hu...
Misspelled words -- especially shortened ones -- have certain persistent advantages as names for web companies. It's easier to find available domains; it's a unique word for search engines; it's short and therefore quick to type.
Of course there are disadvantages too... Twitter was originally called "Twttr" when it launched in 2006, but later restored the vowels:
http://techcrunch.com/2006/07/15/is-twttr-interesting/
[+] [-] mcdoh|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] freehunter|13 years ago|reply
Hey Microsoft, how about some content filtering turned on by default to hide potentially objectionable or NSFW materials? Also while I have your attention, why roll this out without any WP8 integration?
[+] [-] babblingdweeb|13 years ago|reply
"Above the fold" photos of severely/epic photoshopped boobs, etc. Scrolling a little further down I was greeted with photos of poop. Lots of them. I'll skip what there were photos of on the next page.
Suffice to say, I am sure there are a ton of Internet trolls taking advantage of the lack of filtering, and they want to make the site look bad. Hopefully MS can put some type of fix on that sooner than later. Otherwise, I assume some early adopters might be turned off just from going to the home page.
[+] [-] jwarzech|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xionon|13 years ago|reply
(in case anyone doesn't know what that is, here's a sfw explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goatse.cx)
[+] [-] eddmc|13 years ago|reply
Of course, they killed it
This effort looks like another Zune
[+] [-] fwr|13 years ago|reply
What kind of headline is that?
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