Microsoft To Launch New Social Network Called Tulalip Via Socl.com

First reported on Fusible.com, it would appear Microsoft is poised to throw its hat into the social networking arena with “Tulalip” a name which apparently pays homage to a group of Native American tribes who are located near Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington headquarters.

Many of the articles I am reading posted subsequent to the original post on Fusible.com are using words like “accidentally” as “Microsoft accidentally reveals new social networking site.” Call me cynical but why do I think this was anything but an accident? Why do I think the software giant knew exactly what it was doing by “accidentally” launching, albeit oh so briefly, its new social networking platform? Why do I think the Google+ or Google Plus project has something to do with all of this and Microsoft is trying to get its share of the social network pie before its all gone?

Is it plausible that Microsoft, which paid $2.6 million for the domain socl.com, just happened to “accidentally” hit the “publish” button? I guess its possible but…

Cynicism aside, here’s a screenshot of the new service home page which was snapped by the folks at Fusible.com before Microsoft realized (cough/cough) the err of its ways.

The message on the home page reads: “With Tulalip you can find what you need and Share what you know easier than ever.” You can also see the ubiquitous Facebook and Twitter login options.

Now when you go to socl.com you are met with the following message:

“Thanks for stopping by. Socl.com is an internal design project from a team in Microsoft Research which was mistakenly published to the web. We didn’t mean to, honest.”

As we all know, many Microsoft research projects never make it to market, if you will but it will be worth keeping an eye on all this going forward as if nothing else, some of the “features” of Tulalip may find its way into Bing at some point.

Source: Fusible.com, Microsoft To Launch New Social Network Called Tulalip Via Socl.com