Oops: Microsoft accidentally reveals secret social project

Microsoft is working on a social/design project called Tulalip, according to details from a splash page that was accidentally published to Socl.com recently.

As of Thursday, Microsoft has taken down the splash page and replaced it with a message acknowledging the project.

“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,” the message states.

While I believe that publishing the splash page was an accident, I don’t believe Tulalip is simply an “internal design project”.

The splash page (pictured above) describes the Tulalip service as a way for users to “find what you need and share what you know easier than ever”. There are options to connect the service with both Facebook and Twitter. The page also contains two rows of images that look very similar to the “Tiles” interface design found on Microsoft’s new Window’s Phone 7 operating system.

Also, the splash page’s domain name is shorthand for “Social”.

I think it’s obvious that Microsoft is planning to do much more with Tulalip than it’s letting on. The company was unavailable for further comment on its plans for Socl.com at the time of publication.

If you’ve got a theory on what Microsoft is up to, please sound off in the comment section.

Update: A Microsoft spokesperson responded with the following statement: “Socl.com is an internal design project from one of Microsoft’s research teams which was mistakenly published to the web. We have no more information at this time.”

Via Fusible, Search Engine Land