But Will It Pack a Wallop?

Microsoft has funded a new social networking company — yes, here comes another one — called Wallop. What it is (precisely) and what it does (exactly) remain to be seen. According to the WSJ (sub. req'd):

Microsoft Corp. has formed a new social-networking venture based on technology created at the software company, the first spinoff under an intellectual-property program begun last May. The new company, dubbed Wallop Inc., is being jointly funded by Microsoft and Bay Partners, a venture-capital firm. Wallop is developing a Web site that would compete with social-networking sites like MySpace, owned by News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media unit; Facebook Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif., start-up; and Friendster Inc., a San Francisco company that was one of the first with a service to help people meet each other.

Om Malik has some history on CEO Karl Jacob. And according to the Wallop site:

Launching later this year, Wallop solves the problems plaguing current social networking technologies and will introduce an entirely new way for consumers express their individuality online. For example today’s social networks have difficulty enabling people to interact in a way similar to the way they would in the real world. Wallop tapped legendary Frog Design Inc. to conceive a next-generation user interface enabling people to express themselves like never before. In addition, Wallop departs from the friend-of-a-friend model common in all social networks today and the root of many of their problems. Instead, Wallop developed a unique set of algorithms that respond to social interactions to automatically build and maintain a person’s social network.

"Wallop" means "to beat soundly; thrash." If that's what Wallop aims to do to MySpace and the myriad other social networks launching almost daily it will have to fulfill against the high expectations of the marcomm above.

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Related: Michael Arrington at TechCrunch has peaked behind the curtain apparently and calls it "not another 'me-too' social networking offering." And here's some additional detail on the venture from CNET:

Much of the Wallop approach will center on trying to help people find ways of expressing themselves online that more closely match the way they interact in the real world. Photos, videos and other user-generated content are a part of the company's approach, [Karl] Jacob said.