6 ms·

> Secondly he accused Google of blocking Windows Mobile phones from working properly with YouTube. Hah! I'd love to hear more details about this. Isn't it up t

by cryptoz 16y ago

> Secondly he accused Google of blocking Windows Mobile phones from working properly with YouTube. Hah! I'd love to hear more details about this. Isn't it up to Microsoft to add fucking HTML5 or Flash support to their phones? How is Google doing anything but providing videos and Microsoft refusing to write code that reads those videos? This is the dumbest complaint ever, unless there are some details we're missing...I'm curious. This is just too much, it can't be real.

ghurlman 16y ago
Seeing as how every YouTube video I've tried to play in a Windows Phone has worked, I fail to see what the issue is at all. Clearly details are missing.
- rbanffy 16y ago
  They are talking about video metadata. I really can't see what the problem is. Does Google have a private API they use for Android phones? Did Apple pay for it so that YouTube is featured on iPhones. Does Microsoft want this data for free?
  - rbarooah 16y ago
    The problem is that that by acquiring large stores of content (e.g. Video, Books) and stopping other search engines from to indexing them properly, they are giving Google Search an unfair advantage. If they aren't stopped from doing this they'll repeat the process for one content type after another, and the so-called search engine competition that keeps them honest will be killed completely.
    - rbanffy 16y ago
      Microsoft can't complain YouTube is the only game in town - they discontinued their Soap Box thingie. Besides that, YouTube is not the only video hosting provider - There are Vimeo, blib.tv and a host of others. Also, Google scans that books and bears the cost of the scanning. Why would they give this data to Microsoft for free? If Microsoft wants to scan their own books or provide a video hosting platform, they are free to do so, but I don't see why Google has an obligation to provide them these services.
      - rbarooah 16y ago
        So it's ok to have Google Search be a monopoly that nobody can compete with because they own the content too? Personally, I think competition in the search space might lead to better results.
        rbanffy 16y ago
        I have a monopoly on the content I own, much like Microsoft has a monopoly on Hotmail, Windows and Office and Google has a monopoly on the content they created or captured.
        rbarooah 16y ago
        But do you see how Google buying up significant percentages of web content and only allowing their own search engine to index it properly would make it impossible for other search engines to compete?
        rbanffy 16y ago
        I don't see this "buying up significant percentages of web content" thing happening. Is that the books thing where they scanned the books themselves? Is is YouTube, where they offered a good enough video platform? Is AdSense and AdWords, where they made monetizing a website simple and painless? And Microsoft's Brad Smith saying "It is obviously difficult for competing search engines to gain users when nearly every search box is powered by Google" is beyond hypocritical. He can't possibly be stupid enough to believe that himself. No. Microsoft is not complaining of unfair practices by Google. It's complaining because now they can't use the same practices they always relied on to squash a competitor that has grown too large for them to feel comfortable.
        rbarooah 16y ago
        You don't think YouTube contains a large percentage of web video, or you don't think Google bought YouTube?
recoiledsnake 16y ago
This is from their blog: First, in 2006 Google acquired YouTube—and since then it has put in place a growing number of technical measures to restrict competing search engines from properly accessing it for their search results. Without proper access to YouTube, Bing and other search engines cannot stand with Google on an equal footing in returning search results with links to YouTube videos and that, of course, drives more users away from competitors and to Google. Second, in 2010 and again more recently, Google blocked Microsoft’s new Windows Phones from operating properly with YouTube. Google has enabled its own Android phones to access YouTube so that users can search for video categories, find favorites, see ratings, and so forth in the rich user interfaces offered by those phones. It’s done the same thing for the iPhones offered by Apple, which doesn’t offer a competing search service. Unfortunately, Google has refused to allow Microsoft’s new Windows Phones to access this YouTube metadata in the same way that Android phones and iPhones do. As a result, Microsoft’s YouTube “app” on Windows Phones is basically just a browser displaying YouTube’s mobile Web site, without the rich functionality offered on competing phones. Microsoft is ready to release a high quality YouTube app for Windows Phone. We just need permission to access YouTube in the way that other phones already do, permission Google has refused to provide.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- ChrisCooper 16y ago
  They don't really give any detail on exactly what is stopping them. I haven't worked with it myself, but as far as I can tell, YouTube has a perfectly public API: http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/getting_started.html#data_api http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/getting_started.html#dat...
rbarooah 16y ago
I guess you didn't read the article. The core complaint is that YouTube isn't allowing search engines other than Google to access their metadata, preventing Bing from searching properly. If Google is actually doing this, and is allowed to continue, then no search engine will be able to compete properly with them. That's a pretty real and serious accusation.

by cryptoz 16y ago

ghurlman 16y ago

Seeing as how every YouTube video I've tried to play in a Windows Phone has worked, I fail to see what the issue is at all. Clearly details are missing.

rbanffy 16y ago
They are talking about video metadata. I really can't see what the problem is. Does Google have a private API they use for Android phones? Did Apple pay for it so that YouTube is featured on iPhones. Does Microsoft want this data for free?
- rbarooah 16y ago
  The problem is that that by acquiring large stores of content (e.g. Video, Books) and stopping other search engines from to indexing them properly, they are giving Google Search an unfair advantage. If they aren't stopped from doing this they'll repeat the process for one content type after another, and the so-called search engine competition that keeps them honest will be killed completely.
  - rbanffy 16y ago
    Microsoft can't complain YouTube is the only game in town - they discontinued their Soap Box thingie. Besides that, YouTube is not the only video hosting provider - There are Vimeo, blib.tv and a host of others. Also, Google scans that books and bears the cost of the scanning. Why would they give this data to Microsoft for free? If Microsoft wants to scan their own books or provide a video hosting platform, they are free to do so, but I don't see why Google has an obligation to provide them these services.
    - rbarooah 16y ago
      So it's ok to have Google Search be a monopoly that nobody can compete with because they own the content too? Personally, I think competition in the search space might lead to better results.
      - rbanffy 16y ago
        I have a monopoly on the content I own, much like Microsoft has a monopoly on Hotmail, Windows and Office and Google has a monopoly on the content they created or captured.
        rbarooah 16y ago
        But do you see how Google buying up significant percentages of web content and only allowing their own search engine to index it properly would make it impossible for other search engines to compete?
        rbanffy 16y ago
        I don't see this "buying up significant percentages of web content" thing happening. Is that the books thing where they scanned the books themselves? Is is YouTube, where they offered a good enough video platform? Is AdSense and AdWords, where they made monetizing a website simple and painless? And Microsoft's Brad Smith saying "It is obviously difficult for competing search engines to gain users when nearly every search box is powered by Google" is beyond hypocritical. He can't possibly be stupid enough to believe that himself. No. Microsoft is not complaining of unfair practices by Google. It's complaining because now they can't use the same practices they always relied on to squash a competitor that has grown too large for them to feel comfortable.
        rbarooah 16y ago
        You don't think YouTube contains a large percentage of web video, or you don't think Google bought YouTube?

recoiledsnake 16y ago

This is from their blog: First, in 2006 Google acquired YouTube—and since then it has put in place a growing number of technical measures to restrict competing search engines from properly accessing it for their search results. Without proper access to YouTube, Bing and other search engines cannot stand with Google on an equal footing in returning search results with links to YouTube videos and that, of course, drives more users away from competitors and to Google. Second, in 2010 and again more recently, Google blocked Microsoft’s new Windows Phones from operating properly with YouTube. Google has enabled its own Android phones to access YouTube so that users can search for video categories, find favorites, see ratings, and so forth in the rich user interfaces offered by those phones. It’s done the same thing for the iPhones offered by Apple, which doesn’t offer a competing search service. Unfortunately, Google has refused to allow Microsoft’s new Windows Phones to access this YouTube metadata in the same way that Android phones and iPhones do. As a result, Microsoft’s YouTube “app” on Windows Phones is basically just a browser displaying YouTube’s mobile Web site, without the rich functionality offered on competing phones. Microsoft is ready to release a high quality YouTube app for Windows Phone. We just need permission to access YouTube in the way that other phones already do, permission Google has refused to provide.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
ChrisCooper 16y ago
They don't really give any detail on exactly what is stopping them. I haven't worked with it myself, but as far as I can tell, YouTube has a perfectly public API: http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/getting_started.html#data_api http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/getting_started.html#dat...

rbarooah 16y ago

I guess you didn't read the article. The core complaint is that YouTube isn't allowing search engines other than Google to access their metadata, preventing Bing from searching properly. If Google is actually doing this, and is allowed to continue, then no search engine will be able to compete properly with them. That's a pretty real and serious accusation.