Microsoft and Google exchange April Fools' jokes

Microsoft and Google took aim during April Fools' Day, through some not-so-subtle pranks directed at one another.

The rival companies, both keen on practical jokes it would seem, used the notoriously jokey day to take notoriously obvious jabs at each other, with the search giant striking the first blow early morning.

Making a Gmail Blue announcement via the company's official blog post, the redesigned email service is Google's way of bashing Microsoft's revamping of its Hotmail service earlier this year.

"Starting today, you'll get to experience the next big step for Gmail, Gmail Blue," Google said.

Using a 'company executive' by the name of 'Richard Pargo' - the phony video asks the question: "How do we completely redesign and recreate something while keeping it exactly the same?"

A pretty obvious dig at Microsoft's newly released Outlook.com service it would seem.

Microsoft on the other hand introduced Bing Basic, turning the search engine into a Google look-alike.

"Every day on the Bing homepage, we strive to bring you a picture of the world that you've never seen before," said Michael Kroll, principal UX manager, in a company blog post.

"Just a single image a day, but always something memorable and beautiful.

"We decided to go back to basics, to the dawn of the Internet, to reimagine Bing with more of a 1997, dial-up sensibility in mind.

"We may see some uptick in our numbers based on this test, but the main goal here is just to learn more about how our world would look if we hadn't evolved."

While not directly mentioning Google, the obvious give away comes from the line: "So today we're running a special test, where if you visit bing.com and enter a certain telltale query, you'll get something a little more bland."

Hammering Google's basic imagery, Kroll went a step further, directing users to a video link called: "When there's nothing else to look at…you may take drastic measures" - "Watch Paint Dry…In HD!!!"

So, which company won the battle of the gags? Tell us your thoughts below