Google and Microsoft are waging a tech war against each other in public, with Microsoft unleashing a spoof video of Gmail entitled “Gmail Man.”
What’s worse, the Microsoft spoof video is available now on Google-owned YouTube.
On Wednesday, in an unusual move for the Redmond company, Microsoft began placing full-page newspaper ads encouraging people who are unhappy about Google’s privacy policy change to consider changing to Microsoft platforms, such as Bing, Hotmail, and Internet Explorer.
“Some email services, like Gmail, actually read the contents of your mail (both sent and received, even if you aren’t a Gmail user but just sending to someone who is) in order to decide what kind of ads to serve up to you,” the ads say.
On Thursday, Google responded with a detailed rebuttal to the ads, saying that people’s privacy on Google is not at risk and that users will still be able to easily edit preferences and delete data such as search history.
Google also said that its computers — not people — scan email messages of users to determine which ads would be relevant for each particular user.
In a blog posting, Google policy manager Betsy Masiello said: “No one reads your email but you. Like most major email providers, our computers scan messages to get rid of spam and malware, as well as show ads that are relevant to you.
“We’ve always believed the facts should inform our marketing—and that it’s best to focus on our users rather than negative attacks on other companies.”
Still, the ‘Gmail Man’ must sting a bit in Google land.
