There’s no cool blind taste test site or video with some guy walking up to random people and shoving such an offering in their faces, but Microsoft is once again saying that most users prefer its product to Google’s. This time, however, it’s not about Bing. It’s about Outlook.com vs. Gmail.
According to Microsoft, four out of five people like Outlook.com better.
“We found that about a third of Outlook.com users are active Gmail users trying Outlook.com for the first time,” says Microsoft’s David Law. “We wanted to learn more, so we hired a research firm to recruit hundreds of Gmail users – people that use Gmail as their primary email service – and asked them to try Outlook.com. We asked the Gmail users to sign-up for Outlook.com addresses, forward email from Gmail to Outlook.com, and try Outlook.com’s best features. The Gmail users loved it.”
According to Law, they prefer Outlook.com’s design, spam blocking and management of unwanted messages and photo/document sharing features.
Note: Google did just announce new file insertion capabilities for Gmail today.
“The best part was, after spending just five days with it, 4 out of 5 of these Gmail users said they would switch to Outlook.com,” says Law.
Microsoft says it will soon be launching a one-click archive feature, more keyboard shortcuts, more inbox customization features and an Outlook app for Android.