Weekend discussion: Microsoft trying to woo Gmail users by heavily promoting Outlook.com, will it work?

Microsoft launched Outlook.com, basically a modern Hotmail email service with numerous new features, back in July of 2012. Microsoft even touted Outlook.com as being popular and having over 25 million active users since its launch. Now, it seems that Microsoft will be starting a heavy campaign to push Outlook.com and even attempt to woo Gmail users.

According to a new report, Microsoft is planning on heavily promoting Outlook.com as an option for Hotmail users, starting this week. Microsoft has already sent out emails to current Hotmail users urging them to upgrade and the company has already begun using advertisements to promote the new email service. It makes sense that Microsoft is now barely trying to promote the service after several months of its debut. Microsoft wanted to iron out bugs and see how the service behaved with millions of users before trying to go on an all-out advertising spree to promote the service. “We just wanted to make sure the service was working and working well at scale,” Microsoft stated. Microsoft isn’t forcing Hotmail users to upgrade just yet but as the advertising begins, who knows? Perhaps Microsoft will push all Hotmail users to jump aboard the Outlook.com bandwagon as the service becomes increasingly popular. Take a look at the video below showcasing the new email service from Microsoft, if you haven’t already seen it:

On the other side of the spectrum, Google offers a free, advertising supported email service as well called Gmail, which has been available since 2007. As Outlook.com’s biggest competitor, Gmail offers a vast variety of features as well as a clean interface. Now that Microsoft is ready to push Outlook.com with heavy advertising, the company is setting its sights on Google’s Gmail service. Microsoft wants to win back current Gmail users who jumped ship from Hotmail and even Microsoft admits that a third of current Outlook.com users are actually coming from Gmail. The question is, what does Microsoft need to do in order to get Gmail users to jump ship and join Outlook.com? It will take more than a name change for Microsoft to woo Gmail users. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.