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BBC removes its shows from Google's Podcasts app
If you search for BBC programs on the Google Podcasts app or through Assistant, you might get a handful of results at most -- or none at all -- instead of the dozens you'd usually get in the past. The broadcaster has pulled its offerings from the app after the tech giant altered its search function to direct viewers to its own service instead of BBC Sounds and other third-party services.
[...] [Perhaps] the main reason why the broadcaster chose to abandon the app is somewhere near the bottom of [BBC's Distribution and Business Development Director Kiera Clifton's] post, particularly the part where he talks about audience data. By directing users to its own app, Google is depriving the BBC of information on what potential listeners are interested in. The broadcaster uses that data to determine what's popular or trending, so it can create more programs of a similar nature. It could also use that information to surface similar shows for a user and to make sure it doesn't have gaps in its coverage.
Google is looking for a solution, so expect more user tracking.
Also at Android Authority.
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(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Friday March 29 2019, @04:21AM (3 children)
So the BBC is upset that Google can track listeners but the BBS can't (I'm assuming the Google app is tracking, but I haven't read the ToS or privacy policy). So the solution will probably be that Google somehow lets BBC track listeners using the Google app as well.
Tracking-as-a-Service?
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(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @12:20PM
Isn't that a bit redundant? You already mentioned Google ;-)
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday March 29 2019, @12:57PM (1 child)
Reacting to the subtext - I don't think there is anything wrong with google tracking people on google's servers; or even with bbc tracking people listening to their material through . I think the issue is with Google (or BBC, or friendface, or anyone else) tracking people on *every single website* apart from SN and a couple of others.
Remember, FriendFace is a Virus.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday March 29 2019, @01:16PM
Sorry keep on forgetting angle brackets dont make it through filtering. Should have been
> or even with bbc tracking people listening to their material through [some random website].