You can also watch the video in HD by clicking through to the Spiked Studio channel on YouTube.

Using search functions powered by Bing’s API, So.cl encourages students to search for topics and then create montages of the visually rich web content. The links are automatically shared as you search, in case there are other students looking for the same thing. You can also have “video parties,” which “let you search, and quickly assemble a list of movies to view together with friends.” (Those friends are other online So.cl users.)

There is an opt-out ability at the very end but quite sneaky.  Mainly when they chose not to use their own Windows Live service as an authentication mechanism. Take a peek in the video above.

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I found a few UI issues along the way, but nothing to call a show stopper. Plus this is still a beta product with room to grow and take over what was a space for Gist before they were bought by Research In Motion (BlackBerry).  The service includes seeing:

• inline updates
• it’s own menu on the left navigation
• reminders
• a global address book feature
• new contact alerts

I am eager to see how they evolve and add new social services into the product.  Their feature request list in the FAQ listed Skype and even Google Voice on the wishlist.  So give them a shot and see what you think.  Did I mention it is free?

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You can also watch this in HD and all the network videos on the Spiked Studio Productions channel on YouTube

Upon first looks, it was a simple browser interface. No download outside of verifying you have a current version of Flash.  Authentication was performed via Facebook, with some strange access to your personal information.  I highlighted those concerns in the video.

I found the groups a bit strange to work with and soon started hearing strange sounds after recording.  It took a minute, but I found little Facebook like pop-ups in the bottom browser corner on that page of people randomly chatting away.  I found no way to see the profile of the person or block them.

via PaidContent.org

You can see a sample of the multi0video interface here, along with the Facebook friends down the left side of the image.  You can have individual video chats, or what they call “scrums” for group video chats.  I can see this feature taking off for teenagers right away that live in Skype and Oovoo right now.

My thought is Facebook always sits back and let’s other develop this type of functionality and generate the buzz needed to elevate it to the next level.  They then look into the architecture needed and will bring some form of video capability into the product.  With the recent changes to messaging that were made (see Episode 14), to make it seamless, video is direction to keep Skype away.

I plan on testing more with some Facebook friends that answered the call to also get into the site and test it out.  Feel free to join my Facebook network.

Once I make some more runs through, I will make an updated posting on ease of function, clarity of video streams and stability of the multi-way video.

I also have some questions around monetization if they are offering this as a free service with the millions (over $5M) of funding they have received to launch the product.  I imagine with the access to personal information, your friends and profile, they could build some decent advertising into the UI that would be unobtrusive.