Earlier this month, Google sent a cease and desist letter to Microsoft as they found their YouTube app violated its API and strips out the advertisement that are available in videos. Microsoft then replied to the cease and desist by saying they would need help from Google in order to be given access to the necessary APIs to include advertising in YouTube videos on Windows Phone. It looks like their response has gotten them somewhere as Google has announced both companies are working together on a new YouTube Windows Phone application.
Google says “Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube’s API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks.” During the time where Google and Microsoft are working together to create an application both companies could consider beneficial, Microsoft will “replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time.”
It is often not trivial for Windows 8 / Windows Phone 8 apps to use YouTube’s content without doing something like embedded an IE browser object and the fact that even Microsoft is having a hard time with this shows that both Microsoft and Google should make something that’s easier to use both for themselves, but for app developers as well. Like it or not, Youtube has become the de-facto video hosting platform for a lot of folks, and virtually every app eco-system needs to have a good way to use Youtube videos. Let’s hope that this will not only help the YouTube app for windows, but also the community at large.
Filed in . Read more about Google, Microsoft, Windows, Windows Phone and YouTube.