Microsoft Pulls Site After Plurk Charges

Microsoft said it was temporarily suspending its MSN China microblogging site, Juku, as it investigates a complaint of plagiarism from a start-up, Plurk.

Microsoft is working with the MSN China joint venture to investigate the situation, the company said in a statement on its Web site.

In a blog post on Monday, Plurk, considered a rival to Twitter, said about 80 percent of the client and product codebase for Microsoft’s Juku appears to be a copy of its own service.

“Plurk was never approached nor collaborated in any capacity with Microsoft on this service,” Plurk said in the blog.

Microsoft launched MSN Juku, which was created with an independent vendor, in November, allowing users to find friends via microblogging and online games.