
You may have heard from now that Google is currently in its beta stage of its social networking project called Google+, which has recently welcomed its 10 millionth user, but don’t look now because Microsoft apparently has something up its sleeve. Fusible.com, a blog that centers on domain names, has posted a scoop that Microsoft has “unintentionally” leaked its own social networking platform named “Tulalip” over at socl.com. According to the blog, Tulalip refers to a Native American tribe located near Redmond, Washington, where Microsoft is housed.
“With Tulalip you can Find what you need to Share what you know easier than ever,” reads the tagline at the main page. It also shows Facebook and Twitter log in fields, an indication that the project could be a lighter take on social networking rather than a full-on experience, much like what Friendster looks like now. Fusible claims that socl.com is owned by Microsoft, which also allegedly bought the domain name social.com for $2.6 million.
The teaser page has since been taken down and is instead replaced by this statement: “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.” After reading the third sentence, you being to question whether the leak was unintentional at all.