Microsoft Claims Google “Manufactured” Reasons To Block YouTube App
August 16, 2013
By Michelle Jones
valuewalk.com
Apparently Google Inc (GOOG) is still refusing to play nice with Microsoft Corporation (MSFT). It continues to block the YouTube app from Windows Phones even though Microsoft fixed its previous issues with the app. Google is now requiring that the app be written using the HTML5 coding language. However, YouTube apps for iOS and Android are not written in that coding language. It would seem as if Google sees Windows Phones as a real threat to Android.
It seems like Microsoft Corporation ( NASDAQ:MSFT) is the one getting “scroogled” by Google Inc ( NASDAQ:GOOG) now. Microsoft essentially accuses the search giant of trying to sabotage the Windows Phone experience—specifically through the YouTube app. Google is still blocking the YouTube app on Microsoft’s Windows Phones, even though Microsoft said it has addressed the initial problems expressed by Google.
A history of Microsoft’s spat with GoogleDavid Howard, corporate vice president at Microsoft Corporation ( NASDAQ:MSFT) posted a blog article on Technet explaining the situation on Thursday. He reminded Windows Phone users that last May Microsoft launched an improved version of the YouTube app on the platform, but then Google Inc ( NASDAQ:GOOG) objected to a number of things in that app.
Microsoft then took the app down, addressed the points expressed by Google and re-launched it. Microsoft enabled Google’s ads within the app, disabled video downloads and made it so that users could no longer view reserved videos. But in spite of those steps to fulfill Google’s requests, the search giant has blocked it again.
Microsoft accuses Google of acting in bad faithAccording to Howard’s post, Google Inc ( NASDAQ:GOOG)’s latest objections with the new YouTube app “are not only inconsistent with Google’s own commitment of openness, but also involve requirements for a Windows Phone app that it doesn’t impose on its own platform or Apple’s (both of which use Google as the default search engine, of course).”
Microsoft Corporation ( NASDAQ:MSFT) goes on to point out that Google had said in the past that it wanted to grow its business through open access to its platforms and content. The search giant reiterated this view again throughout the recent antitrust investigations it faces.
Google demands Microsoft use HTML5Google’s new requirement for Microsoft before it will unblock the YouTube app on Windows Phones is that the company write it using the new coding language HTML5. As Howard points out, “this was an odd request since neither YouTube’s iPhone app nor its Android app are built on HTML5.”
He said “experts from both companies” examined whether it would be feasible to build a YouTube app on HTML5 and found that it would be “technically difficult and time consuming.” As such, Microsoft believes YouTube hasn’t made this conversion for its iPhone or Android apps yet.
Google’s other problems with Microsoft’s app“It seems to us that Google’s reasons for blocking our app are manufactured so that we can’t give our users the same experience Android and iPhone users are getting,” Howard wrote. “The roadblocks Google has set up are impossible to overcome, and they know it.”
According to Howard, Google claims that another problem with the new app is that “it doesn’ always serve ads based on conditions imposed by content creators.” He said their app delivers Google’s ads using all of the information available to them. They have asked Google to provide the same information provided to iPhone and Android so that they can mirror the way ads are served by those platforms. However, Google refuses to provide the information to Microsoft. |
