April Fools’ Day provides the springboard for companies to make some unbelievable announcements, but for Google and Microsoft, it serves as the perfect time to poke fun at eachothers’ shortcomings. With Gmail Blue, Google is teasing Redmond over a product that doesn’t officially exist yet, while Microsoft goes back to basics to poke fun at its rival’s "vanilla" search engine.
Gmail Blue is said to be the culmination of a challenge to "completely redesign and recreate something, while keeping it exactly the same." While we are left with a distinctly bluer Gmail interface, Google’s references to Microsoft’s own blue project — Windows Blue — are clear to see, as Microsoft gears up to revamp Windows 8’s "metro" mode with new features and some UI tweaks later this year.