Microsoft leaks Tulalip internal project, planning to launch social search... thing?
Google's Social Search may have to make room for an extra guest at the table, now that Microsoft has leaked the homepage for what looks like a new social service -- of some sort. Fusible first discovered the page sitting at socl.com, a domain that MS recently purchased. Known as Tulalip (also the name of a group of Native American tribes near Redmond), the project promises to help users "find what you need and share what you know easier than ever" -- which, at this early stage, is pretty difficult to do, considering that the page's search field is non-functioning. The platform also features sign-in buttons for Facebook and Twitter, the latter of which leads to an authorization page explaining that Tulalip is an "experimental app," and that it will be able to "update your profile" and "post tweets for you" (see the screenshot, after the break). It's too early, of course, to say whether or not the service will launch as a direct competitor to Social Search, or if it'll even get off the ground, though Microsoft insists that it didn't mean to tip its hand so early. The Socl.com welcome page now reads: "Socl.com is an internal design project from one of Microsoft's research teams which was mistakenly published to the web. We didn't mean to, honest."
[Thanks, Brian]
