by
4 Comments

Gmail: The War of the Promotional Videos Is On

posted on July 28, 2011


Many people use Gmail. Why not? It’s free and it works pretty well. Of course, it has become a big advertising tool as well and we all know how Google likes to determine what ads to serve.

In a pretty funny video that may have initially have only been intended for attendees of the MGX (Microsoft Global Exchange) sales conference, Microsoft gives Gmail the once over for its ad generating “techniques”.

For its part in the contest, Google has produced this video asking for those who know use and love Gmail to perform an intervention on the few holdouts they may know that are using some other e-mail platform.

More and more we are seeing how the commercialization of the Internet is hailed as both boom and bust. With everything seemingly getting some kind of advertising attached to it, there may be a real move toward getting away from the “we know a lot more about you than you wish” feeling that happens everywhere on the net today.

What about you? Where are you on this issue? Would you like to have more privacy (even at a cost) or is free and scannable the way to go?


Related Posts

Zemanta
  • Alex P.

    I never click on the ads anyways…their just ads. I’ll stick with Gmail. But these ads just remind of the Mac vs. PC ads. It’s just both sides taking shots at each other.

  • http://www.stanleyoppenheimer.com searchengineman

    The more I see this stuff
    The more I want to roll my eyes.

    http://www.fairsearch.org/searchville and other Microsoft scare tactics.
    Like this video.

    Reminds me of those 1950′s scare video’s
    about communists, The A Bomb, Biker Gangs etc.

    Frankly I see Microsoft as the Kid who is currently losing every game of chess (Search).
    & Accuses the other kid (Google) of cheating. Never mind the other kid spent every
    waking moment getting really good at chess. While the Microsoft Kid spends most of his time selling 5 cent Lemonade for a $Buck to his friends (Windows, Office, Desktop Software). With a lucrative side business of cups, napkins and smiles (Not the free kind!)

    So the loser
    calls over his parents (FTC to Probe Google Federal Trade Commission Inquiry )
    and tells all his friends what a big cheater Google is.

    Microsoft you suck at chess, Search is not a lemonade stand.
    Instead of spending money on PR campaigns and Lawyers.
    How about using your resources to build a great product we want to use?
    How about building a search tool in Facebook that works like Google -
    so I can finally look up stuff in my facebook stream?

    Google built its reputation on trust of users.
    Microsoft give me a reason to trust you, because right now all I see
    is that whiny kid brother, who hides behind mom & dad while sticking out his tongue.

    Searchengineman

  • http://www.retailedge.com Azrian

    I prefer the advertising companies to pay for my email service instead of me, even if *a computer* reads my mail.

  • http://www.internetbeacon.com/ Internet Beacon

    Although I find the Gmail video funny, the bickering between the two companies is kind of annoying and unoriginal. This sounds like last year’s video about Google Chrome stealing user’s privacy that was used to help promote Internet Explorer 8 and when Google countered by saying Microsoft is copying them. The actual commercials may be original and entertaining but the reason for making them is boring and a little childish. Maybe instead of slandering the competition they should focus on producing exceptional products and let them be the true measure of their company.

Filed Under: General