MICROSOFT IS preparing its own social network named “Socl,” Thomas Huston at The Verge reports.

Huston got a look at the social network. It sounds and sounds like your basic set-up:

Ignoring for the moment that the interface looks a lot like that other social network, Socl offers a bare bones, three column layout, with basic navigation in the left rail, a social feed down the middle, and invites and video party options (more on that soon) on the right.

As usual, you can follow other friends, but you won’t find any list-making tools. Core to the experience is the large search field at the top that asks, “What are you searching for?” effectively creating a new type of status update. You can also toggle the field to a traditional status update.

Does the world need another social network? Of course not.

We understand why Google is doing Google+. It has zero access to Facebook data, and it wants to make search more social. It wants to have more data on its users.

Microsoft on the other hand is a relatively close partner with Facebook. It has a big investment in the company, and it has access to Facebook data to make Bing more social.

Socl is just a research project right now for Microsoft. But, Houston says it’s going to be released to the public eventually.

- This article by Jay Yarow first appeared on BusinessInsider.com