Microsoft has launched Socl, a new social network to an understandably muted response.

I have mixed feelings. On one hand, who needs another social network? After much initial fanfare, Google Plus seems to be a ghost town. And Bing isn’t the Google-killer that Microsoft folks want it to be, despite the billions that the company has spent marketing it.

On the other hand, the Age of the Platform is all about experimentation. What’s more, search is going to get more and more social. (Hence Google Plus in the first place.) Microsoft has of yet not created a viable social plank in its platform. To this end, it makes sense.