Microsoft's Outlook.com adds Google chat integration
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In a rare bit of
cooperation, Microsoft's Outlook.com is giving users of its free email service
the option of logging into Google Chat to exchange instant messages and engage
in audio or video conversations. This was announced
Tuesday represents an uneasy alliance in the midst of a typically contentious
relationship between Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc.
Microsoft is framing
its embrace of Google Chat as an example of how it's trying to help connect
people who rely on various services to interact with one another. Both
Outlook.com and Google Chat are offered for free as way for Microsoft and
Google to attract more online traffic to its advertising-supported services.
With the latest
addition, Outlook.com account holders will have three different ways to
interact with their friends and family in real-time discussions. They have
already been able to use Microsoft's own Skype chat service and Facebook's
messaging service. Microsoft closed its Messenger chat service earlier this
year as part of a switchover to Skype, which the company bought for $8.5
billion in 2011.
Even as it offers
Google Chat to its Outlook.com users, Microsoft is warning consumers that
Google's search engine and other services can't be trusted. The company has
spending millions of dollars on a series of critical ads that began appearing
online, in print and on television about six months ago.
Some of Microsoft's
recent advertising attacks have been aimed at Google's Gmail, the foundation
for Google Chat.In a marketing
campaign dubbed "Scroogled," Microsoft lambastes Gmail for scanning
the texts of emails to decipher what's being discussed so ads on related topics
can be displayed alongside the electronic conversations. While depicting Google
as an obnoxious snoop, Microsoft's ads urge people to switch to the less
intrusive approach of Outlook.com.
Since the service's
debut nine years ago, Google has never tried to conceal that it uses computers
to parse the discussions within Gmail correspondence.
No ads are shown in
live discussions on Google Chat, but marketing messages can be displayed if the
conversations are saved, according to Google's policies. As it does with Gmail,
Google's computers scan the context of the saved chats to help pick out which
ads to show.That practice didn't
deter Outlook.com from linking up with Google Chat.
"We do not have
any queasiness about adding Google Chat," said Dharmesh Mehta,
Outlook.com's senior director. "We think it's important to give people
choice so they can make their email more personal. It also gives people one
more reason to switch from Gmail to Outlook.com."
Microsoft believes it
already has dented Gmail since it converted its Hotmail.com users and other
email accounts operated under other domain names, such as MSN.com, to
Outlook.com earlier this year.
The company, which is
based in Redmond, Wash., says it now has about 400 million Outlook.com users.
That's up from about 360 million users of Outlook.com and the Microsoft's other
webmail services three months ago.Google, which is
based in Mountain View, Calif., says it has more than 425 million Gmail users.
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