Microsoft recently opened up so.cl, the software giant’s latest experiment in social networking, to the general online public. (Don’t let its spelling worry you too much. It’s pronounced as “social.”)

While the usual Microsoft bashers promptly dissed the relatively young social media endeavor, so.cl apparently has found quite a lot of fans and early adopters.

Combining the features of a search engine, specifically those of Bing, the qualities of photo-sharing sites, such as Instagram and Pinterest, and social networks’ ability to connect people, so.cl is one of the most welcoming online destinations I have seen so far.

Creating an account is quite easy. And if you have a Facebook or Microsoft account, logging in is just like eating a slice of apple pie.

Of course, it is not for everybody. There will be some people who will probably never see another reason or justification for another “social media” platform.

For the rest of us, however, so.cl is just another wonderful use of the Internet’s potential to link us humans with one another. Besides, it seems one fun way of wasting your time online, at least.

YM Cuts Off Windows Live Messenger

Erstwhile friends and partners Yahoo and Microsoft seem to be headed further down the avenue of soured relationships. And this deterioration in the companies’ affiliation status seems to include the untwining of their respective services from each other.

For example, Yahoo! Messenger’s interoperability with Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger is set to end by December 14, 2012. In no uncertain terms, Yahoo has made it clear via a blog post.

Although as a consolation perhaps for YM users who regularly interact with their Windows Live Messenger-using friends, Windows Live Messenger buddies will still appear on their YM contact list. Their Microsoft-loving friends’ names, however, will appear grayed out, and will not be able to receive YM messages.

Tech Gurus on the Run

What’s with these high-tech titans lately?

A few months ago, it was Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom. Today, it is antivirus pioneer John McAfee’s turn to run afoul with law enforcement. Wanted for questioning by Belize police about a neighbor who was shot dead, McAfee went into hiding and eventually ended up in Guatemala.

He was then arrested and detained by Guatemalan police while awaiting deportation proceedings against him. McAfee was about to be sent back to Belize. A judge, however, could prevent Guatemalan authorities from turning him over to Belize if the court could be convinced that McAfee faces serious threats to his personal safety in that country.

Instagram-Twitter Spat

Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger are not the only social media entities currently in the middle of divorce proceedings.

Twitter, the photo-sharing service recently acquired by Facebook, stopped supporting rival social media company Twitter’s cards feature, which allows Instagram photos to be integrated and viewed directly in a Twitter message.

Instagram chief executive Kevin Systrom said his company had concluded it would be better if its users should view their pictures on his company’s own Web site.

That actually makes sense, in the short term.

That’s all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.