Microsoft Trashes Google Docs in New Commercials
Microsoft's latest ad campaign pulls no punches.
Microsoft hasn't been shy about criticizing Google over the last few months. The company's been telling users they're getting 'Scroogled' since November. However, this time around, Redmond is taking a different tack. The company has just released two new commercials about Office 365 vs. Google Docs.
The first is titled "Google Docs isn't worth the gamble" and warns users that "converting Office files into Google Apps is a gamble."
"When you open a Microsoft Office application, you know what you're going to get," Microsoft's Jake Zborowski wrote on the company's Office 365 blog, later adding, "Productivity software is built to help people communicate. It's more than just the words in a document or presentation; it's about the tone, style and format you use to convey an overall message. People often entrust important information in these documents -- from board presentations to financial analyses to book reports. You should be able to trust that what you intend to communicate is what is being seen."
The video then shows two guys in a casino trying to decide what kind of game they should play. One of them spies a 'Google Docs' table and heads over with a little encouragement from the guy working the table. The game is simple: Open a Microsoft Office document with Google Docs with no loss of data or any format discrepancies and win. No prizes for guessing how it went (it is a Microsoft commercial after all), but check it out for yourself below:
The next commercial aims to show users how using Google Docs can harm your productivity. The ad features a group of guys playing half-court basketball together. On one team, there's Microsoft Office. The other has a less athletic looking Google Docs. Google Docs eventually admits that he's 'got some deficiencies' after a team mate points out that he is impacting productivity to the point where the rest of the team has to work harder.
"Many basic features are missing from Google Docs like grammar check, support for columns, custom date formats, slide numbers, and mail merge," writes Zborowski. "Add to that the many more advanced capabilities missing from Google Docs like Power Pivot, SmartArt, watermarks, master slides, image editing, slicers, and information rights management -- and you watch your productivity start to decline."
Check out the second commercial here:
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It's not clear if Microsoft plans to air these ads on TV or if they'll be internet only. You can see Microsoft's blog posts on the ads here and here.
Jane McEntegart is a writer, editor, and marketing communications professional with 17 years of experience in the technology industry. She has written about a wide range of technology topics, including smartphones, tablets, and game consoles. Her articles have been published in Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, MobileSyrup, and Edge Up.
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Gatepc I tried office 365 and when multiple people work on a single spreadsheet it required me to save before others could see my changes. Drove me freaking crazy. Just for that reason alone I prefer Google docs.Reply -
dsigned Way to go Microsoft "Our expensive service is better than their free service!" Maybe they're comparing corporate environments, in which case they might have a point, and I don't know enough about the pricing differences to comments on that.Reply
For personal use, I would say that Google Docs has never been a replacement for MS Word. A supplement would be a better description. I don't need MS Word all the time, just when I'm doing something that requires it. For a great many things, I can just type it up in Google Docs (or, heaven forbid, Gmail) and send it from there.
And that seems to be what they're conveniently omitting. Google Docs is way faster than opening up Word, and in the majority of the cases where I use a Word processor, that's all I need.
As for incompatibility -- isn't that just as much a Microsoft flaw as a G Docs flaw? Doesn't that imply that MS has problems making things that everyone else can open? -
mykebrian because of this commercial, i'm gonna keep using libre office or maybe i might use google docs if ever i don't got my pcReply -
bvsbutthd101 Also forgot to include that Google Docs is everywhere. It's on every computer you go on. No installation, just login to google and you're done.Reply -
mjv1121 What's the problem with using M$ software? After all it's Open Source and the price is free.....oh no, wait a minute, those lying MoFos are AFTER YOUR MONEY.Reply -
crabdog If it were plain text only I'd be satisfied with LibreOffice but anything with images or tables almost never works right unless it was actually created with LibreOffice. Since the large majority of docs are made with Microsoft Office you really need that to get things done.Reply -
DjEaZy ... nop... no google doc's or Ms office for me... i use LibreOffice... and the end result is saved in PDF... do file discrepancies...Reply -
Sakkura More often than not, the reason for format discrepancy is MS Office, not the other program you're using. It's just like how IE is traditionally the browser with the worst standards conformance.Reply -
The0ne Office is more feature rich while Google Docs is basic. While Google is ok for your basic collaboration you should consider Office/skydrive as it is much better. I've used both extensively for collaboration and prefer Office BUT there are just a lot of critical bugs that MS cannot and have not been able to address. They have a community to help but they can't keep up with the amount of bugs going on. As such I've stopped using Office/skydrive until many of them are addressed, which I believe will be almost never...as with most office quirks.Reply
So my recommendation today...use what you're used to because there are pros/cons to each. For those that are trying to use collaboration, you have to use skydrive. Changes by multiple users are reflected immediately like Googledoc. Working on the file in Office just means the app is constantly uploading/downloading. So use the Office webapps for collaboration, it is a must. -
West701 Google might rule the internet, but Microsoft still rules the software world. Most clients and companies will expect MS formats. I really don't see the big deal of paying $99 bucks for a brand new version of MS Office. Microsoft Office is like Adobe Photoshop, while Google Doc/Libre office is lke GIMP. You get what you pay for.Reply