Google's global ad blitz takes on Microsoft, IBM

SAN FRANCISCO: Google Inc said more than 2 million businesses now use its online office software, and the Web search leader went global yesterday with an advertising campaign to lure customers away from Microsoft Corp and IBM products.

The campaign, which started yesterday in countries including France, Japan and Britain, represents a rare foray by Google into mass-market advertising and underscores increasing competition to provide businesses with email and other office software.

While Microsoft and International Business Machines Corp dominate the market for enterprise email, Google is trying to convince businesses to switch to its so-called cloud-based services, in which software is accessed over the Internet and maintained at Google's data centers instead of on a company's computers.