Battle of IT giants

Microsoft is so confident it has the internet’s best e-mail service that it is about spend at least $30 million (€22.5 million) to send its message across America.

E-mail remains a key battleground, even at a time when more people are texting each other on phones

The barrage began yesterday when Microsoft’s twist on e-mail, Outlook.com, escalated an assault on rival services from Google, Yahoo, AOL and a long list of internet service providers.

As part of the process, all users of Microsoft’s Hotmail and other e-mail services operating under different domains such as MSN.com will be automatically converted to Outlook.com by summer, if they do not voluntarily switch before then. All the old messages, contacts and settings in the old inboxes will be exported to Outlook.com. Users will also be able to keep their old addresses.

E-mail remains a key battleground, even at a time when more people are texting each other on phones.

People still regularly check their inboxes, albeit increasingly on smartphones. The recurring e-mail habit provides internet companies with a way to keep people coming back to websites. It gives them a reason to log in during their visits so it is easier for e-mail providers to track their activities. Frequent visits and personal identification are two of the keys to selling adverts, the main way most websites make money.

That is why Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have been retooling their e-mail services in recent months.

After keeping Outlook.com in a “preview” phase since July 31, Microsoft is ready to accept all-comers.

To welcome new users, Microsoft is financing what it believes to be the biggest marketing blitz in the history of e-mail. Outlook.com will be featured in ads running on primetime TV, radio stations, websites, billboards and buses.

The Outlook ads will overlap with an anti-Gmail marketing campaign that Microsoft launched earlier this month. The ‘Scroogled’ attacks depict Gmail as a snooping service which scans the contents of messages to deliver ads related to topics being discussed.

The Gmail ads are meant to be educational while the Outlook campaign is motivational, said Dharmesh Mehta, Outlook.com’s senior director.