YouTube for Windows Phone. Just don’t mention it. You can’t get a YouTube app for the Microsoft OS and many (including my good self) have pointed out that it’s a pretty big problem – customers want a YouTube app and expect it out of the box.
The two companies are fierce competitors and in the past Google have accused Microsoft of copying. Now Microsoft are turning up the heat in this blog post. It comes from Dave Heiner (pictured), CP and Deputy General Counsel at Microsoft. He looks like the guy who sold me a sofa at DFS and he’s basically complaining that Google aren’t willing to work with them to build a proper YouTube app. Microsoft have gone ahead and started building their own YouTube app, but Google / YouTube have prevented a lot of the features working.
Microsoft have now seemingly found that…
Senior executives at Google told them (YouTube) not to enable a first-class YouTube experience on Windows Phones.
Google haven’t exactly denied that they’re stopping Microsoft from developing a “first class” YouTube experience, but have told AllThingsD that ..
It’s easy for consumers to view YouTube videos on Windows phones. Windows phone users can access all the features of YouTube through our HTML5-based mobile website, including viewing high-quality video streams, finding favorite videos, seeing video ratings, and searching for video categories. In fact, we’ve worked with Microsoft for several years to help build a great YouTube experience on Windows phones.
We’re not sure whether AllThingsD have formatted the text incorrectly, or whether Google have purposefully put “Windows phone” and “Windows phones” in the response instead of “Windows Phone” and “Windows Phones”.
Meow…..
Either way, the games will continue..
Links – AllThingsD – Microsoft Technet Blog
I have just resorted to using Metrotube which I actually do find to be a bit better for YouTube as it prebuffers your video when on WiFi at least.