Microsoft Should Read Email

Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft, is back in the headlines after claiming last week that 'Unlike Google, Microsoft doesn't read your email'. Pray tell, Mr. Ballmer, how does Microsoft know where to send the email if they don't read it? For an email to be transmitted over the internet to my browser, it definitely needs to be read first. What Microsoft doesn't do (can't do?) is serve-up unobtrusive contextual ads. Moreover, how does Microsoft detect spam emails if they don't read any emails at all?

For one, Steve Ballmer is not new to creating controversy. He was in the news earlier for his comments on the iPhone and how the expensive phone will not appeal to customers because of the lack of a keyboard. On how Microsoft plans to compete with the iPhone, he said "Right now we're selling millions and millions and millions of phones a year, Apple is selling ZERO phones a year (this is just before the launch of the iPhone). In 6 months they'll have by far the most expensive phone in the marketplace and let's see how the competition goes". We all know how the competition went for that one. Here's a video where you can see Mr. Ballmer fielding the question himself -

If you like the iPhone, though, you would love the following video where Craig Ferguson bashes Microsoft's Zune in favor of the iPhone. A must watch video -

If you want to head to where people are discussing Mr. Ballmer's latest comment, here are some places -

Steve Ballmer Attacks Google's Gmail Ads at Mashable

Microsoft's Ballmer: Google Reads Your Mail at Slashdot