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If you haven’t realized yet: it is on.  The “it” being the battle between Google and Microsoft for control of, well, control of everything.  Today, we’ve got the billboard war.

Where does tech bleed out of blogs and in front of the common man?  Billboards.  If you happen to be in San Fransico, Chicago, New York, or Boston, you’ll be greeted by reasons why Google Apps are better than Microsoft Office.  Google will tout why 3,000 companies a day are making the switch and how silly and outdated you look by not switching (it’s implied).  Over 1.75 million have made the switch, so why not you?

The “Going Google” campaign will also include online components as well such as “Day #2, Patch Tuesday made me go Google”, making fun of Microsoft’s Tuesday scheduling of patch downloads.

Over at the Google at work site created to hook customers, a rather simple calculation shows how much money you could save by going Google.  By inputing your deployment base and what your company pays an IT Manager, Google compares the cost of using Microsoft vs. Google.  The calculations were created using the experiences of sample customers and may or may not fit your organization.  A quick estimate shows my shop would save money using Google Apps by a margin of $50 per employ vs. $73 with Microsoft (excluding labor).

Not only is Google pushing savings but also features such as instant messaging, video and voice conferencing, real-time collaboration and more.  It is enough to break Microsoft’s strangle hold on business productivity?  Is it changing your mind?

Product page:  [Google]  via [TechCrunch]