Will Google change Microsoft's Outlook?



The success of Microsoft's new decision engine Bing has undoubtedly put a bee in Google's bonnet, but that doesn't mean the Mountain View search giant hasn't had a few counter attacks up its sleeve.

Already showing signs of disgruntlement that many Bing users are crowing about features of the decision engine that Google's offering happens to have offered for quite some time (today, Google added a link detailing these on its famously unclogged homepage), Google has also recently hit back at Microsoft in a market where it normally excels: its email software.

Recently, Google created an Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook, which allows users to access their emails from their Gmail account, keeping the Outlook facade and layout. The key change occurring here is that, instead of company servers storing users' data and back-end functionality, all of this information would be moved onto Google.

Hardly wanting to hear that Outlook users liked Google so much they were choosing to store emails online with the Mountain View colossus, Microsoft was speedy in identifying any problems App Sync for Microsoft Outlook possessed, and quickly announced that the current version of the programme doesn't let users search through their stored emails.

Dev Balasubramanian, Outlook's product manager, wrote on his blog: "The installation of the Google Apps Sync plugin disables Outlook's ability to search any and all of your Outlook data.

"It is also important to note that uninstalling the plugin may not fix the issue."

In a blog post on Google's end, Google Apps senior product manager Chris Vander Mey said: "We're working with Microsoft and other partners to help fix these issues and support additional Outlook features like multiple calendars.

"We'll keep you posted on our progress."

If Google's attempt to annex Microsoft's Outlook users works, a critical struggle for email customers will wage yet more powerfully between the two industry goliaths. And, what with Bing's week on week growth into popular search since its arrival at the start of June, Google will be keen to keep ahead of the game - despite protestations that that's exactly where it's always been - any way it can.

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