“Sometimes, when a person loves their Gmail very very much, the two get together and an ad is born,” The Gmail Man says.

As the story goes, this thinly veiled attack was actually a product of Microsoft. The video leak came from the Microsoft Global Exchange sales conference, which occurred in July. It was apparently shown there as a sort of “rally the troops” exercise – everyone sitting around, having a laugh at the expense of the competition type thing.

But now, Microsoft has released the video officially on their YouTube channel and they are promoting it via Twitter and Facebook.

Here’s the video, which appears to be unchanged from the leaked version. The point of it still seems to be advertising for Office 365.

As I mentioned before, this video isn’t new – but Microsoft’s official promotion of it is. And of course, the timing couldn’t be more poignant.

Google’s new privacy policy has gotten some people up in arms. Basically, Google is combining dozens of privacy policies into one, and saying that they will use information from all if their products to help personalize other products. Say you searched for “bears,” the next time you log into YouTube you might have a suggestion to watch some bear videos.

Whether it’s truly a big deal or not, Microsoft has jumped on the opportunity to slam Google. On Wednesday, they took out full page ads in major newspapers that said Google doesn’t put people first. The ads detailed Google’s privacy policy changes and suggested users switch to Microsoft alternatives like Hotmail and Bing.

Google quickly hit back, doing a little bit of mythbusting on their public policy blog. Here’s a relevant snippet from that rebuttal that pertains to Gmail man:

Myth: Google reads your email. [Microsoft]
Fact: No one reads your email but you. Like most major email providers, our computers scan messages to get rid of spam and malware, as well as show ads that are relevant to you.

Google goes on to talk about Microsoft’s own privacy policy:

We don’t make judgments about other people’s policies or controls. But our industry-leading Privacy Dashboard, Ads Preferences Manager and data liberation efforts enable you to understand and control the information we collect and how we use it—and we’ve simplified our privacy policy to make it easier to understand. Microsoft has no data liberation effort or Dashboard-like hub for users. Their privacy policy states that “information collected through one Microsoft service may be combined with information obtained through other Microsoft services

Wherever you stand on all of this privacy battle business, you have to admit that Microsoft’s Gmail Man ad is pretty funny.

Speaking of Gmail, one comedy group tackled the same kind of concerns with GMale, Google’s perfect boyfriend:

Users are getting the same email that other Gmail users have been receiving throughout the past week. Admins are getting a different email, however. Here’s what it says:

Dear Google Apps administrator for YourSiteHere.com,

We’re getting rid of over 60 different privacy policies across Google and replacing them with one that’s a lot shorter and easier to read. Our new policy covers multiple products and features, reflecting our desire to create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience for your users across Google products.

As always, Google will maintain your data in strict compliance with the confidentiality and security obligations provided to your domain.

We’re excited about the improvements we are making across our products and appreciate your support. You can view the new privacy policy at http://www.google.com/policies. These changes will take effect on March 1, 2012.

Google Apps boasts 4 billion businesses.

More coverage of Google’s privacy changes:

Your Grandmother Will Love Google’s New Policy Terms

Google Privacy Changes: What Do They Mean To You?

Can Consumers Opt-Out Of Google’s New Privacy Policy?

Google Privacy: “The Real Story”

Google’s Policy For Government Contracts Unchanged

Google’s Privacy Approach With Danny Sullivan and NPR

More Backlash From Google’s New Privacy Policy

Yes, Virginia, Google’s New Privacy Policy Lets You Opt Out Of Sharing Your Data

Well, it’s officially 2012. And now that we are four weeks in, it’s the perfect time to get organized so you can make the most of the year ahead.

That’s why this week, the Gmail team is taking part in the 5th annual Clean Out Your Inbox Week, a week dedicated to clearing out the clutter and getting your inbox organized. Whether you get hundreds of emails a day or just have past messages loitering in your Inbox, Clean Out Your Inbox Week is a great opportunity to do that email organization you’ve “been meaning to do.”

According to a Google+ post, the Gmail account will be posting a new tip each day this week to help you de-clutter your inbox. Today’s tip involves archiving and searching:

Archive and Search tool: Clearing out the clutter in your inbox is an important part of staying organized. But sometimes there are emails you don’t want to trash: important documents and records, things you might need for future reference, and messages with sentimental value from the people you care about. Gmail’s Archive button lets you safely tuck those emails away, clearing up space in your inbox so you can focus.

And finding them again is easy with our Search tool (made even better with Gmail’s new look!). Click the down arrow next to the Search box in your Gmail, and you quickly search your emails by recipient, sender, time, subject, or content.

Google also wants Google+ users to get in on the action by posting their own inbox cleanup tips and tricks with the hashtag #GmailCleanup.

I’m happy to report that my inbox number is currently under 100. Take that, clutter.

These include: improved email compliance footers, approved/blocked sender lists and file attachment policies.

“These capabilities help our customers address compliance requirements and effectively manage email traffic,” says Gmail Product Manager Adam Dawes. “Previously, Google Apps customers used Google Message Security, powered by Postini, to provide these capabilities.”

“With this new release, we’ve improved these features and designed them specifically to meet the needs of our Apps customers,” says Dawes. “Admins will manage the features natively in the Google Apps control panel (localized in 28 languages), leverage our granular policy framework to customize settings for different types of users, and join multiple rules together to address very targeted use cases.”

The features fare now available globally for Google Apps for Business, Google Apps for Government and Google Apps for Education editions.

Google will no longer offer Google Message Security (GMS) to Google Apps customers. Customers will need to migrate to the new features.

They also recently launched a site called “Get More Out Of Google+,” which discusses ways to use Google’s social network with other popular Google products like search, Gmail, YouTube, Maps and Blogger.

And of course there’s a big old button to “upgrade to Google+” for those who aren’t already signed up.

In the search section, it just basically highlights all of the new integration from the controversial “Search Plus Your World” feature set.

The Gmail section talks about finding email from people in your circles, sharing photos and seeing what else your friends are saying.

The YouTube part talks about seeing the videos your friends are sharing, watching videos together with Hangouts, finding new videos to share, and sharing videos with “the right people”.

The Maps part talks about sharing directions with “just the right people”.

Finally, the Blogger part talks about sharing blog posts on Google+ whenever they’re published.

There’s not much in the way of new information on the site (at least at this point), but it is a good place to see Google’s various integrations with other products. Such integration will only continue to expand.

It kind of helps you look at Google+ more as a feature of Google than as a separate network.

In an effort to circumvent keyloggers or even security flaws on public computers, Google’s new log-in doesn’t require you to touch a keyboard at all (at least that’s a little less you’ll have to touch germy keyboards) as it enables a QR code to gain entry to your account. Tentatively (?) titled Sesame, the feature generates a QR code that you scan with your smartphone. By following the URL for Sesame (https://accounts.google.com/sesame), you will be presented with a page that displays only a QR code.

After you scan the QR code, you will be prompted to open a URL via the scanner app. Once you click yes, you will be directed to a webpage in your mobile browser like this:

Once there, you can select whether to open your account in Gmail or iGoogle. Once you select an option on your phone, the screen in which the QR code originally appeared will redirect you to whichever Google page you selected.

I’ve got more than one Google account so, at this time, I’m unsure how Google determined which account of mine I wanted to open but I’m going to assume the decision is based on whatever account I have synced to Google Apps on my phone. Also, you will only have a limited time to scan the QR code with your phone before you’re session will time out. At that point, you’ll have to reload a new QR code.

And just like that, you’re in. It’s the hands-free version of Google log-ins. Now sleep a little better tonight knowing less people might be following your activity.

UPDATE: Well, that was a nasty little tease from the Google hobbitses. As mentioned below by commenter Joe, Google has indeed pulled the QR security code log-in feature. The Sesame page now displays:

Hi there – thanks for your interest in our phone-based login experiment.
While we have concluded this particular experiment, we constantly experiment with new and more secure authentication mechanisms.

Stay tuned for something even better!

Dirk Balfanz, Google Security Team.

Oh well. Thanks for all the fish?

First would be the addition of a settings page, which lets you choose if you want to sync 7, 14 or 31 days worth of email. “So the next time you get on an airplane, you can sit back and tackle up to 31 days of mail all while offline,” says senior software engineer Dave Stewart.

With the app, attachments are now downloaded and available for offline use. This should be incredibly helpful for those wanting to actually view the content of their email.

Messages and attachments download at a faster rate, Google says.

There are also some bug fixes and keyboard shortcut support has been added.

“If you have keyboard shortcuts enabled in Gmail, your setting will transfer over to the Gmail offline app,” says Stewart. “If you’re not sure what you can do with keyboard shortcuts, try pressing ‘?’ next time you’re using Gmail or Gmail offline.”

Google says the improvements will be there the next time you open the app.

Now, Greplin indexes Google chats. The company said in a blog post:

Now you can search for your chats the same way you search for a Gmail Message. You’ll see results mixed in with the “Messages” results.

This won’t happen automatically. To enable this feature you must make sure “Show in IMAP” is enabled for Chats in your Gmail settings.

To add Google chats, just login to Gmail, click the gear icon, click mail settings, select labels, and next to chats, click show in IMAP.

Greplin says your chats should start showing up in Greplin searches within 24 hours.

The Scribbles feature is available in iOS Gmail app, or if a user navigates to Gmail in their mobile browser — well, with for the following environments: iOS 4+, Android 3.1+ or Playbook device — and it features a compose view element, allowing users to draw whatever scribble-based image they choose. Because of the calendar, the Google post discussing the feature has a heavy Christmas lean, but you can make scribbles for any occasion.

Judging by the example images, scribbles are attached to Gmail mailings as PNG files, which, as long as they aren’t overdone, should add a level of personalization normal signature blocks don’t convey:

From prehistoric humans etching in caves to the modern-day thinker sketching a stroke of genius on a napkin, scribbling is a natural form of human expression. Not constrained by formatting or font styles, scribbling is a versatile outlet for expressing individuality and creativity. Not to mention it’s a lot of fun.

For holiday emails, Scribbles would be perfect, I agree, but for everyday, run of the mill mailings, they could get a little intrusive.

The site is once again in operation (for U.S. users).

This year, Google has also made it possible to call Santa from Gmail. Product marketing manager Trevor Claiborne says, “This year, Santa wants you to reach out to him (after all, reindeer are only so-so conversationalists). If you or your family members have a special request for Santa, you can call him right from Gmail* and leave him a message at his Google Voice number: 855-34-SANTA. Santa won’t be able to return messages himself—it’s a busy time of year for him—but he’s promised to keep us up to date on happenings in the North Pole day by day.

“Of course, Santa is never one to fall behind the technological times (word on the street is that Rudolph’s nose was recently upgraded to an energy-efficient LED),” he says. “So while the red suit may never go out of style, this year Santa has come up with an extra special way to spread the holiday cheer. But you’ll have to wait until it’s closer to Christmas to find out what it is.”

I wonder if that has anything to do with Google+. A Santa Hangout perhaps?

On a semi-related note, Google recently extended free calls (for the U.S. and Canada) from Gmail through 2012.