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Microsoft Social Networks News

Microsoft Social Media Site Accidentally Revealed 134

Posted by Soulskill from the keeping-up-with-the-googses dept.
BogenDorpher writes "Looks like Microsoft is trying to steal the spotlight from Google — a new social media site from the company was accidentally revealed. The site, branded 'Tulalip,' was not functional, and it was taken down shortly after its discovery. It appears to be a 'social search' service. Microsoft says it went live by accident, and was simply an 'internal design project.'"
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Microsoft Social Media Site Accidentally Revealed More

Microsoft Social Media Site Accidentally Revealed

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  • easier than ever !! yaaaay.

    the marketing types need to start coming up with less shittier slogans if they want to sell this social media shit. it has grown old way too fast.
    • Nope; cos this is Microsoft, they don't need to come up with anything at all. All they have to do is that a) Windows update will default to adding it to all your web browsers and b) your operating system gives you a chance to opt out of sharing your data. Plus they can automatically build your social network not only from your webmail, but also from your corporate directories and stuff. Facebook is going to be so screwed. An excellent lesson in "partnering" with Microsoft. I think we'll be calling him

      • Hmm, me thinks it wasn't an accident, but the microbial ridden primate marketing. How best to get news about your new product but to have a supposed mishap to build buzz about it. It's like a sex-tape for software.

        • Hmm, me thinks it wasn't an accident, but the microbial ridden primate marketing. How best to get news about your new product but to have a supposed mishap to build buzz about it. It's like a sex-tape for software.

          Exactly. Microsoft is very good at this. It is a formula that has worked for them since the early 80s. The next time you see something leak about that new Rick Roll of an OS they plan to call "Windows 8" look closely, it is no accident, it is pure marketing.

          • Microsoft is NOT good at this.

            Just like in the mobile OS space, they are years late and several dollars short.

            • Microsoft is NOT good at this.

              Just like in the mobile OS space, they are years late and several dollars short.

              Late to mobile? Windows Mobile was around for years, almost a decade when they killed it. Microsoft's problem is it copies its competitors and offers little new when their own strategy isn't working. Phone 7 is an iPhone clone that is promising to be friendlier to hackers to get developers on board and using a Nokia deal to try to grab marketshare.

              Ms had a greate mobile product with Windows Mobile that had some problems that they never managed to solve to make a pleasant user experience and decided to

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by v1 ( 525388 )

              Microsoft is NOT good at this.

              But they have so much experience in this area? I mean, identifying a popular new market after it's already been filled in with developed competitors, making a late entrance into a mature market with a rough beta, with the only distinguishing features being things nobody wants or likes, and withdrawing from the market a few yrs later after nonstop negative returns.

              Somewhat unrelated but still worth a look, the difference between a successful market entry, and what MS will try:

          • That was my thought too. "Leaks" are too easy a way to build hype. They aren't going to let Google play in the social space without them.

          • Microsoft is very good at this. It is a formula that has worked for them since the early 80s.

            Really? I am struggling to think of an example of this from Microsoft. Of the leaks that they have had, I can't think of an instance when they have been caught out doing it deliberately (as opposed to bloggers just speculating this). Microsoft are much more likely to blatantly put out a press release to announce something long before it is ready to be released, in the hope that this will kill off the competition.

            The next time you see something leak about that new Rick Roll of an OS they plan to call "Windows 8" look closely, it is no accident, it is pure marketing.

            Why would they need to leak information about Windows 8 when they are actively previewing it [bbc.co.uk]?

    • less shittier

      LOL

  • Tulalip? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Why didn't they go with chrysanthemum-mum-mum-mum-mum for the name instead?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Why didn't they go with chrysanthenom-nom-nom-nom-nom for the name instead?

      FTFY

    • Chrysanthemum-mum-mum-mum-mum doesn't cash in on the bitcoin craze.

  • Not the name (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Bob2Bob is the name.

  • Riddle. (Score:1)

    by grub ( 11606 )

    Q - What's better than roses on your piano?

    A - Tulalips on your organ!

  • Tulip madness? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by calmofthestorm ( 1344385 ) on Friday July 15, 2011 @09:36AM (#36774360)

    On unix, everything's a file. On the new internet, everything's a social network.

    • The internet is a social network.

      • The internet is a social network.

        You're wrong, and you're a grotesquely ugly freak.

        See? More like an anti-social network.

  • Ha ha ha, REALLY? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Legion303 ( 97901 ) on Friday July 15, 2011 @09:40AM (#36774402) Homepage

    "Tulalip"?

    Why, it practically trips right off the tongue. Then plunges to its death.

    • "Tulalip"?

      Why, it practically trips right off the tongue. Then plunges to its death.

      It's a town in the Seattle area. So, it's likely a codename.

      • It's a town in the Seattle area. So, it's likely a codename.

        I'm sure the real name for it will be something cool like Bing or Zune or Kin. Maybe Zing or Bune.

        Of course whatever they call it, it will come in Starter, Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          They can call it Bing Minus.

    • "weweredrunk" was voted against.

    • It's a Zune in the making.

    • It's an indian tribe's name, you insensitive clod!

  • "...didn't mean to..." - Not bloody likely (Score:5, Funny)

    by JackCroww ( 733340 ) on Friday July 15, 2011 @09:41AM (#36774414)
    Oops, we accidentally secured a four-letter domain, registered it with DNS servers, and uploaded content to it. But it was all a mistake.
    • I don't know if it is accidental or not, but I've witnessed blunders like that, and worse.
    • *nudge**nudge* ;)

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      If you go to socl.com it says:

      "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."

      They said "honest," so it must be true!

    • Exactly. By saying that it was "accidentally revealed" they have everyone wanting to know what's all about. Good marketing strategy, if you believe it. I don't, even for a second

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gl4ss ( 559668 )

        well, no. if you plan to test some db setup or something like that, a social network where you can send messages, receive them etc, live edits and such, then it's a good concept to prototype as it gives you a real world sort of scenario to fullfil. if it were google, they would have ran it with a pr campaign with expensive viral marketing experts and then shut it down as a research project.

        • If it is a prototype the only possible way of marketing it is by "accidentally" revealing it. That's the only way you can be excused of not having a finished product while at the same time let it be known that you are on the game. As the original poster has pointed out, you don't need to buy a four-letter domain and register it with DNS servers just for testing purposes, Well, you would perhaps if you were on limited resources. Not the case.
    • Great sig.

    • Almost every "leak" is intentional. My favorite is when movie and game sites breathlessly report that some teaser trailer "leaked" and then was taken down. Companies do that on purpose to create the illusion that you're seeing something they don't want you to see, which creates hype. It also makes people host the video on their own sites so that the company doesn't even have to pay bandwidth costs to host it themselves.

  • and.. (Score:3)

    by gearloos ( 816828 ) on Friday July 15, 2011 @09:41AM (#36774418)
    Microsoft Social Media Site Accidentally Revealed !! And nobody cared...

  • Friendy (Score:5, Funny)

    by Baloroth ( 2370816 ) on Friday July 15, 2011 @09:42AM (#36774428)

    "Hello, it looks like you're trying to find a friend!

    Can... can I be friends with you? Please? Oh God I'm so lonely!"

    • Sortof like 3D-vision. Everybody is hyping it, but if you don't have depth-perception..

      The same with social networks: once the late majority arrived and there were just posts of cats, baby pix, and has been through images of my long lost ex'es and laughed what has become with my high-school friends or acquantances, it got boring.

      I don't care either about billions of people's their experiences and opinions which are creating a overly LOUD and NOISY saturated experience.

      Yet, it's what the larger part of the i

  • Now that's pretty interesting. What happens when Facebook and/or Twitter decides they want to block Microsoft if it ever becomes a rival or a deal falls through?

    I know, I know, Microsoft is courting both, Twitter for its firehose, and Facebook with Skype. But from the vantage of Facebook, for instance, doesn't really want Microsoft competing with them anymore than they want Google competing with them. Maybe Microsoft has assured them that it's a tie-in for Office 365 and/or Windows 7 media... but that's

    • What happens when Facebook and/or Twitter decides they want to block Microsoft if it ever becomes a rival or a deal falls through?

      It's also slightly funny for Microsoft to be competing with Facebook while partnering both for authentication and, if they're buying Skype, for video chat.

  • It's not facebook and it's not tulalip.

    I scored a google+ invite, wanted to check it out. There's no there there. Yet. Will there ever be? Some estimates of 10M already signed up. Now what. Everyone else is still over on FB. I'm thinking it could be the next Google Lively.

    Will anyone got to Tulalip?

    • Re:The best thing you can say about google+ (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Kamiza Ikioi ( 893310 ) on Friday July 15, 2011 @09:58AM (#36774600)

      No one there? Forgetting the tech people, there are some big name celebrities on G+, ones who are on the cutting edge, like Ashton Kutcher. There are other celebs on their, like Kanye and Soulja Boy (though they are not big posters).

      The question is, what happens with someone like Lady Gaga joins? For Twitter, it was Oprah. Facebook is different, though, because it's more of a friend-to-friend. And I think G+ is more Twitter-ish (start putting big names in your Following circle, and it is a VERY busy place), and so yes, it may be small now, but it will explode.

      10 million users in 2 weeks for an invite only service is crazy growth! And the moment a Lady Gaga or Obama goes on there, private or public, that will be acknowledgement that this phenom is real.

      I personally use it like an addict, though more like Twitter than Facebook. It has enough friend-to-friend, though, that I don't need Facebook and can still post to family and friends without switching networks. As the noise grows in public, I'll back off a bit, just like I did on twitter, and keep to a closer circle of followers and friends, but still engaging publicly.

      The best thing I can say about G+ is that if you want to use it like Facebook, you can. Like Twitter, you can. Like neither, you can. It's really what you make of it.

      • No one there? Forgetting the tech people, there are some big name celebrities on G+, ones who are on the cutting edge, like Ashton Kutcher

        It's Friday afternoon here and I'm tired. Was that a joke?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by EXrider ( 756168 )

        No one there? Forgetting the tech people, there are some big name celebrities on G+, ones who are on the cutting edge, like Ashton Kutcher. There are other celebs on their, like Kanye and Soulja Boy (though they are not big posters).

        Am I the only person on Earth that could give two shits about what celebrities are doing?

        • No one there? Forgetting the tech people, there are some big name celebrities on G+, ones who are on the cutting edge, like Ashton Kutcher. There are other celebs on their, like Kanye and Soulja Boy (though they are not big posters).

          Am I the only person on Earth that could give two shits about what celebrities are doing?

          If it wasn't for them, Twitter would still be a little techy hang out and not the go to place for things like middle east protests and breaking news of such real time that it's completely transformed the speed at which the entire wired world operates. Celebs bring fans, fans bring audience, and audiences bring ecosystem.

          A total geek hangout is fine, but I wouldn't call /. a social network. Big fish, big pond, little fish, little pond. So, for all the social media developper geeks, it matters not if you gi

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by EXrider ( 756168 )
            I'm not a social retard by any means, I keep a tight group of friends and I have a lot of acquaintances. I just care more about what people close to me, like family, that have a more direct influence on my life are doing. I could care less about what Lady Gaga or Linus Torvalds are doing, really.

            I guess when I said that, I really was talking about the people who obsess over what celebrities are doing. The types of people that actually watch TMZ or MTV. The types of people that let these celebrities t

            • We're already doomed... I hear the next hot show out is Let's Make a Survivor So You Think America's Got Idol. It's starring Carrot Top and a walrus as the host. ;)

  • "The site, branded 'Tulalip,' was not functional" - So its ready for release then, right Steve?

  • Odd... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    >> "Socl.com is an internal design project from one of Microsoft's research teams which was mistakenly published to the web."

    I see one of two scenarios.

    1) Since internal != internet, why the hell would you even register a domain name for something that was intended to stay internal? They could have simply used socl.microsoft.com if they needed to test it from another internet-connected site. So, scenario 1 is that MS is lying through their teeth.

    or

    2) They 'accidentally' published an entire web sit

  • Tulalip (Score:3)

    by jparker ( 105202 ) on Friday July 15, 2011 @10:03AM (#36774666) Homepage

    That sounds like a big gamble... (oh ha ha. oh it hurts. ha ha. ha)

    (To add a thin veneer of content to this otherwise horrible joke, Tulalip is a town near Seattle, much as Whistler and Blackcomb are nearby mountains. Tulalip is best known in the Seattle area for several casinos. I wouldn't be surprise if MS intended the name to be a nod towards the gamble of it all.)

    • That sounds like a big gamble... (oh ha ha. oh it hurts. ha ha. ha)

      (To add a thin veneer of content to this otherwise horrible joke, Tulalip is a town near Seattle, much as Whistler and Blackcomb are nearby mountains. Tulalip is best known in the Seattle area for several casinos. I wouldn't be surprise if MS intended the name to be a nod towards the gamble of it all.)

      Eh... more likely that Microsoft tends to prefer geographic internal naming schemes.

    • Don't forget all the illegal fireworks people buy there too
      Can't forget Boomcity
  • Meh, Apple calls them "leaks"... to each his own. I call it a desperate PR move that will fail to bring any real excitement to an idea that's, as mentioned above, already grown old very fast (nowhere near fast enough, though). Move along, nothing to see here!

  • Old dogs and new tricks (Score:5, Funny)

    by assertation ( 1255714 ) on Friday July 15, 2011 @10:05AM (#36774702)

    Microsoft trying to do a social media site makes me picture Bob Dole dressing like a 23 years old and trying to blend in at a dance club

  • Warning: If you are offended by anti microsoft posts don't read this. It is not meant for you.

    Finally! A social media site my machine will automatically sign me up for and post all of my personal information and documents to. It rocks how Microsoft thinks ahead for you. I REALLY hope this comes with office 240!

  • Anyone want to bet on how many social media patents Microsoft will claim it owns? (Since this "accidental" leak could be seen as the calm before the storm: Microsoft's impending, probable attempt at social media takeover).
  • It's gonna be a big success, everyone that has a windows phone will use it!

  • I note the picture covers all the major demographics as you would expect. I presume that MS Poland will be able to photoshop the ones it doesn't like?

  • There seems to be so many social networking sites in the wild nowadays, that, considering the amount of management that would take place between several of them, it would make more sense to direct that energy into managing our own websites and linking to our friends' websites instead.
  • Looks like social networks are going the way of everything else and will soon be rated at a consistent life span from when you start up to when something else comes along w/ 1-2 better features and a new interface.

  • Original first choice: "Bing minus"

  • social media is turning out be a new powerful industry, then why the IT's old horse microsoft wants to be left behind and may be there new project will be back soon

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