Stand aside, browser wars; a new battle is heating up between Microsoft and Google and this time, the battlefield is email.
Google fired the first shot by launching a new website called Email Intervention, designed to help you stage an intervention among your friends who still use that outdated email address from the 1990s. The accompanying video featuring an “intervention specialist” is cute, funny and completely in Google’s cheeky style.
Out of the blue, a video meant for internal salespeople leaked out from Microsoft and drew quite a few chuckles from us. Unexpectedly hilarious, Microsoft’s clip featured “Gmail Man”, a mailman who goes around reading your personal email and then says, “Who cares?”
In the video, the Redmond company exaggerates the function of Gmail’s advertisements, emphasising the privacy and security of its own product, and throws in a few catchy jingles to boot.
His favourite game is peekaboo,
His favourite words, “So what?”
He smiles in your face when
You stutter, “But, but, but…”
His ads are unsolicited,
Based on what you type,
Makes you wanna ditch Gmail
And go Office 3-6-5.
The message Microsoft is trying to bring across is how Google’s enterprise offerings, although inexpensive, are merely channels for it to sell ads. When you buy an Office 365 plan, there are no ads!
But what Microsoft is forgetting is that there are no advertisements in Google Apps for Business! Ads are turned off by default, and administrators can turn it on if they so wish. And of course, we all know no real person actually reads our Gmail account. It’s a fully automated system that learns as it goes along.
That’s what Google says, and we all trust Google… Right?
