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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday December 07 2017, @02:38AM   Printer-friendly
from the he-started-it dept.

Google pulls YouTube from Amazon devices, escalating spat

A rare public spat in the technology industry escalated on Tuesday when Google said it would block its video streaming application YouTube from two Amazon.com Inc devices and criticized the online retailer for not selling Google hardware.

[...] In a statement, Google said, "Amazon doesn't carry Google products like Chromecast and Google Home, doesn't make (its) Prime Video available for Google Cast users, and last month stopped selling some of (our sister company) Nest's latest products. "Given this lack of reciprocity, we are no longer supporting YouTube on Echo Show and Fire TV," Google said. "We hope we can reach an agreement to resolve these issues soon."

[...] Amazon said in a statement, "Google is setting a disappointing precedent by selectively blocking customer access to an open website." It said it hoped to resolve the issue with Google as soon as possible but customers could access YouTube through the internet - not an app - on the devices in the meantime.

Meanwhile, Amazon Prime Video has come to the Apple TV.

Also at The Verge and Variety.

Previously: Google Pulls YouTube off of the Amazon Echo Show
Google's "Manhattan" to Compete With Amazon's Echo Show


Original Submission

Related Stories

Google Pulls YouTube off of the Amazon Echo Show 15 comments

The Amazon Echo Show is an Alexa-powered voice assistant product that includes a touchscreen and a camera. Google has pulled support for YouTube on the device:

Google's popular video-sharing site appears to have disappeared from Amazon's device due to a dispute over how YouTube should work on the Echo Show. According to Amazon, Google pulled support for YouTube on the Echo Show on Tuesday afternoon:

Google made a change today at around 3 pm. YouTube used to be available to our shared customers on Echo Show. As of this afternoon, Google has chosen to no longer make YouTube available on Echo Show, without explanation and without notification to customers. There is no technical reason for that decision, which is disappointing and hurts both of our customers.

But Google accused Amazon of breaking its rules on the way YouTube is presented, adding that talks between the two companies haven't yielded a solution.

We've been in negotiations with Amazon for a long time, working towards an agreement that provides great experiences for customers on both platforms. Amazon's implementation of YouTube on the Echo Show violates our terms of service, creating a broken user experience. We hope to be able to reach an agreement and resolve these issues soon.

The move is likely related to YouTube functionality desktop users are used [to] that is lacking from the Echo Show, including being able to share, recommend and comment on videos.

Also at The Verge.


Original Submission

Google's "Manhattan" to Compete With Amazon's Echo Show 11 comments

Google's 'Manhattan project': Home device with a screen to compete with Echo Show

Google generally doesn't do as well when it builds "follower" products — think Google Plus or Allo. But there are other examples where Google has excelled with later entries (e.g., AdWords, Maps). Right now, Google Home is a follower product seeking to break out of Amazon Echo's shadow.

[...] Amazon now has two devices with screens: Echo Show and the new Echo Spot. According to TechCrunch, Google is also working on a Home device with a touchscreen:

Two sources confirm to TechCrunch that the Google device has been internally codenamed "Manhattan" and will have a similar screen size to the 7-inch Echo Show. One source received info directly from a Google employee. Both sources say the device will offer YouTube, Google Assistant, Google Photos and video calling. It will also act as a smart hub that can control Nest and other smart home devices.

Previously: Google Pulls YouTube off of the Amazon Echo Show


Original Submission

Amazon Plans to Remove Google's Nest Products After Acquisition of Ring 13 comments

Amazon will stop selling Nest products once its current stock of them runs out:

The impending disappearance of Nest from Amazon marks just the latest development in the acrimonious, anti-consumer feud between Amazon and Google. Nest was absorbed back into Google last month after spending three years as a standalone Alphabet subsidiary. (Google tipped off Nest that Amazon had decided against selling its latest hardware while the companies were still separate.) Amazon has steadfastly refused to sell some Google-branded products like the Google Home voice assistant speaker and the company's Pixel smartphones. In December, the online retailer said it would restart sales of the Chromecast streaming device, but it's been three months and you still can't buy it. Last summer, Amazon launched a Prime Video app for Android, but has yet to add support for streaming its content with a Chromecast.

For its part in this ugly falling out, Google has removed YouTube from Amazon's Fire TV streaming products and the Echo Show / Spot, claiming that Amazon has violated its terms of service with those implementations of the YouTube app. There were once signs that the companies were mending the scorched bridge between them, but that doesn't seem to be the case any longer.

Related:
Amazon Declares War on YouTube by Launching Amazon Video Direct
Google Pulls YouTube off of the Amazon Echo Show
Google's "Manhattan" to Compete With Amazon's Echo Show
Amazon Wants to Deliver Purchases into Your Home
Google Pulls YouTube Off of More Amazon Devices
Google Absorbs Nest, Nest Co-Founder Quits
Amazon Acquires Ring, Maker of Internet-Connected Doorbells and Cameras, for Over $1 Billion


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Thursday December 07 2017, @02:49AM (1 child)

    by NotSanguine (285) <NotSanguineNO@SPAMSoylentNews.Org> on Thursday December 07 2017, @02:49AM (#606583) Homepage Journal

    No more YouTube on home spying devices and TV attached spying devices from Amazon.

    No film at eleven, as less than a fuck was given.

    *Not Godwinning this thread, this is a pop culture reference [wikipedia.org].

    --
    No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:05AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:05AM (#606592)

      Godwinning this thread

      Shut up, Newman.

  • (Score: 2, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Thursday December 07 2017, @02:59AM (12 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday December 07 2017, @02:59AM (#606589) Journal

    I could have sworn that Google supported Net Neutrality. Now, here they are blocking people based on the devices they chose to spend their money on. And, I suspect that Trump and his administration will support that decision.

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:08AM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:08AM (#606595) Journal

      They are just removing flowers (or weeds) from the walled garden.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:10AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:10AM (#606599)

      Google is pure evil from Hell, and Michael David Crawford is Satan's loyal fluffer. [soylentnews.org]

      • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday December 07 2017, @05:37PM

        by Freeman (732) on Thursday December 07 2017, @05:37PM (#606887) Journal

        You need help. Please get some.

        --
        Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
    • (Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:16AM (2 children)

      by linkdude64 (5482) on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:16AM (#606602)

      It's almost as if they aren't ethical, they only care about what would make them the most money...

      ...so I wonder why they then support Net Neutrality?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @07:31PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @07:31PM (#606955)

        Because they haven't rolled out enough fiber to compete with the other ISPs yet.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @08:42PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @08:42PM (#606981)

        Hmm... as long as the Amazon devices can continue to access web sites, this isn't really violating net neutrality. Net Neutrality doesn't (shouldn't) have much to do at all with which apps can run here or there, or not. In this case, it's Google taking its YouTube app from Amazon's pretty walled garden as some sort of consequence for another issue.

        Net Neutrality will be prepped for violation when Comcast starts making noises that it might have to block YouTube traffic because Comcast keeps asserting that Google does not do enough to police copyright violations in YouTube. And on behalf of all those content producers and copyright holders, it then seeks some sort of shakedown/reparations/compromise from Google.

        What'll be interesting is if Comcast's Xfinity Mobile MVNO gets traction, and Comcast can then try to go onto users' phones and tablets and disable or remove apps it doesn't like today...

        But at this point, it's all probably just trivial tomato vs tomato differences anyways.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:38AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:38AM (#606618)

      They dropped support for net neutrality a while ago when they realized they're big enough for changes not to affect them.

    • (Score: 2) by moondrake on Thursday December 07 2017, @10:26AM

      by moondrake (2658) on Thursday December 07 2017, @10:26AM (#606750)

      well, they are not being nice that is true. But then, isn't amazon doing the same?

      They do not seem to have many other options to fight back.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @02:30PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @02:30PM (#606796)

      You're close, Amazon was violating an agreement on how the YouTube application is redistributed, the same thing happened a few years ago with Windows Phones.

    • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by arcz on Thursday December 07 2017, @04:12PM (2 children)

      by arcz (4501) on Thursday December 07 2017, @04:12PM (#606844) Journal

      What does this have to do with net neutrality?

      Net neutrality is about preventing ISPs from discriminating against internet traffic, not about preventing the reciever of that traffic from rejecting some of it.

      • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday December 07 2017, @04:39PM (1 child)

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday December 07 2017, @04:39PM (#606856) Journal

        It's about people's right to data. A person wants some data from Google, and Google denies data based on which device they are using.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by arslan on Friday December 08 2017, @12:56AM

          by arslan (3462) on Friday December 08 2017, @12:56AM (#607059)

          But the person can access the data.. with a different device - in fact on a general purpose device like a PC. There's lots of data on the net that are far less accessible..

          They're blocking access to _small_ number of channels, proprietary channels at that, to that data that's all - and only because AWS did the same to them. Its a stretch to say that act in on itself is anti net-neutrality.

          But yea, Google like any other mega-corp could careless about NN as long as it doesn't get in the way of profits.

  • (Score: 5, Funny) by coolgopher on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:15AM (4 children)

    by coolgopher (1157) on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:15AM (#606600)

    Good riddance to the apps and split effort. Maybe they can focus on the web experience then and use the web like it was meant to.

    Wait, no, we don't want "apps" on the net either, and certainly not the DRM nonsense.

    Umm... guys, this is hard... can we just go back to posting stuff to alt.binaries.* instead?

    • (Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday December 07 2017, @04:14PM (1 child)

      by isostatic (365) on Thursday December 07 2017, @04:14PM (#606846) Journal

      I'll DCC it to you on IRC

    • (Score: 2) by Kawumpa on Thursday December 07 2017, @05:34PM (1 child)

      by Kawumpa (1187) on Thursday December 07 2017, @05:34PM (#606884)

      Sigh..., do you remember the time when knowledgeable people, often the developers themselves, answered questions and supported their software in a meaningful way, and trolls sometimes were actually funny or interesting? I'm getting old...

      • (Score: 2) by coolgopher on Friday December 08 2017, @12:20AM

        by coolgopher (1157) on Friday December 08 2017, @12:20AM (#607054)

        Mmm... but proper old-school trolling is *hard*. Though it is glorious when you see a troll elegantly lead someone on a marry chase around their own arguments only to end up arguing for the opposite they originally were.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Arik on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:21AM (13 children)

    by Arik (4543) on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:21AM (#606605) Journal
    "Amazon said in a statement, "Google is setting a disappointing precedent by selectively blocking customer access to an open website.""

    That's some harsh, and apparently justified, criticism.

    Coming from Amazon, it's also hilariously hypocritical.

    I have an idea. How about these two giant anti-human organizations go to war?

    They have plenty of money for weapons. I think we should encourage this. Get everyone else out of the way and let them fight until one is gone. Hopefully the other one will be too weakened to survive at that point as well. Win/win.
    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:24AM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:24AM (#606608)

      You just forgot that Wars involve civlians and in this case the (cool-aid) buying public are the casualties.

      • (Score: 2) by Arik on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:43AM (4 children)

        by Arik (4543) on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:43AM (#606620) Journal
        No no you silly millenial, I'm not talking about a war of words, a marketing war, a war for public opinion, those are *metaphorical* wars.

        I'm talking about a literal war. With guns and bombs and body parts scattered all about. Legalize murder. Why should governments have all the fun?

        Of course, you probably don't know what 'literal' means either, do you?

        --
        If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
        • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @05:00AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @05:00AM (#606648)

          Of course, you probably don't know what 'literal' means either, do you?

          It's like liberal, but with a T instead?

        • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday December 07 2017, @07:55AM (1 child)

          by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Thursday December 07 2017, @07:55AM (#606706) Homepage
          > Of course, you probably don't know what 'literal' means either, do you?

          Is that the kind of stuff you find in literature? So, like, fiction and fantasy and fairy stories?
          --
          Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @09:46AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @09:46AM (#606741)

            no, no.
            it refers to "letter", which is a drawing, or a picture.
            old people use them instead of emoticons.
            so a literal war is when people start typing U+1F4A9 at each other.

        • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Thursday December 07 2017, @09:29AM

          by maxwell demon (1608) on Thursday December 07 2017, @09:29AM (#606733) Journal

          I'm talking about a literal war.
          Fighting against literals, fighting for literals, or using literals as weapons? :-)

          With guns and bombs and body parts scattered all about.

          I see, before the invention of bombs and guns people didn't fight wars. ;-)

          --
          The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    • (Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Thursday December 07 2017, @04:21AM (2 children)

      by Fluffeh (954) Subscriber Badge on Thursday December 07 2017, @04:21AM (#606638) Journal

      How about these two giant anti-human organizations go to war?

      Have you watched the movie War Inc [imdb.com]? That pretty much explores how the world would look if corporations did go to war and the like - though in that case, it seems that one corp was just being used to fight an entire war. Still hilariously macabre whilst accurate if you have worked in large multinationals.

      • (Score: 2) by Arik on Thursday December 07 2017, @04:46AM (1 child)

        by Arik (4543) on Thursday December 07 2017, @04:46AM (#606645) Journal
        No, I rarely watch movies, they're so very often an absolute waste of time. However it's a theme that's been around a very long time in Sci-Fi novels.
        --
        If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
        • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:30PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:30PM (#606819)
          w
          ut
          isg
          oing

          onwit

          hyourf

          ont

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @07:50AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @07:50AM (#606705)

      I H A V E A H A R D T I M E R E A D I N G Y O U R F O N T S E T T I N G. M A Y B E I F Y O U U S E D E F A U L T I N S T E A D O F B E I N G S P E C I A L S N O W F L A K E , I T W O U L D B E N I C E R F O R A L L O F U S . T H A N K S I N A D V A N C E.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:12PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:12PM (#606809)

      I can't read your font.

  • (Score: 2) by MrGuy on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:22AM (5 children)

    by MrGuy (1007) on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:22AM (#606606)

    ...between this and Apple getting in a spat with Disney and blocking all Disney IP's from resolving on all Macs, iPhones, and iPads?

    Since when does the manufacturer of a device have the reserved right to determine whose content I may and may not consume with it?

    This isn't a net neutrality argument - net neutrality is about network operators prioritizing traffic on the wire. This is about device makers claiming they should have veto power over what networks their customers may connect to. Different, and probably a significantly worse threat.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by DutchUncle on Thursday December 07 2017, @04:14AM (2 children)

      by DutchUncle (5370) on Thursday December 07 2017, @04:14AM (#606634)

      >>> device makers claiming they should have veto power over what networks their customers may connect to.

      Ummm, no, backwards. This is about a web site having veto power over what software is allowed to view it, and thereby blocking a category of hardware using particular software. And it's about customers who did nothing wrong and have no input to the situation suddenly having functionality stolen away from devices they bought and paid for. It's about all of the openness of the Internet being sliced into walled gardens.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @09:06AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @09:06AM (#606721)

        So same as websites falsely saying they require IE and not showing anything else when using a different browser. Nothing new to see here, move along youngster.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @09:49AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @09:49AM (#606743)

        the people who want to watch youtube videos are not google's customers.
        the people in this story are actually amazon's customers, because they paid amazon for the privilege of watching youtube.

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by Mykl on Thursday December 07 2017, @04:33AM

      by Mykl (1112) on Thursday December 07 2017, @04:33AM (#606641)

      The difference, if I understand the article, is that Google is pulling their own app from Amazon's devices. The Echo and Fire can still access YouTube through a standard web connection though. Google's not blocking traffic, they're just pulling their app.

      This is more akin to Google releasing Maps features on Android ahead of the same functionality (if at all) on their iOS apps.

    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday December 07 2017, @08:05AM

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Thursday December 07 2017, @08:05AM (#606710) Homepage
      > Since when does the manufacturer of a device have the reserved right to determine whose content I may and may not consume with it?

      Since it was manufactured? No, since it was designed. It's their product, they spec it.
      Noone forced you to buy it, don't give your talers to manufacturers that make products like this.
      (Which also applies to software, and also applies to "platforms", which are more appropriate to the story, as it's not the hardware manufacturer that's causing the stink this time.)
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by ledow on Thursday December 07 2017, @09:17AM (2 children)

    by ledow (5567) on Thursday December 07 2017, @09:17AM (#606727) Homepage

    Lads, I like you both. I have Google Play Movies and Amazon Prime videos.

    I have a Google Chromecast.
    I subscribe to Amazon Prime.

    And I've always played both through the Chromecast. Admittedly a one-button solution would be nice rather than having to stream the tab from Chrome, but that's neither here nor there.

    Fact is, I bought the Chromecast from Google because I couldn't buy it on Amazon. You could have shared in your rival's profit but you wanted to make it difficult for me, and you also allowed a lot of Chromecast-related spam to sit in its place to trick people.

    And I subscribe to Amazon because there's no similar Google Play offering.

    However, the bottom line is this: If you force me to choose, I will. Permanently. That means I won't "lose" my videos that I bought. I'll still demand that you use your resources to send them to me whenever I want them. But you won't see a penny more of my money. Whoever "loses", misses out on that money I'm currently spending. Then I'll give it to their direct rival instead.

    So.. bicker if you like. One of you will lose, and you will both miss out over time as my confidence in purchasing via any such service erodes if you guys just keep falling out to this extent. I know precisely which one it is I would choose. I won't be damaged by it at all. But I'll spend nothing with the loser, and I'll spend less with the winner and any similar service going forward.

    When you have an answer, give me a shout. Because I think if you look, the only answer is "both stop being petty and support each other's gear". That means you get a percentage of everything your rival sells, if you negotiate it right, which is never a bad thing.

    The alternative - the separation that you're threatening - ends well for no-one. And with two big players losing out, it means that you could break that industry as a whole. Or certainly hurt as a result.

    Amazon - stock the Google hardware at the same prices as every other retail store, allow a Chromecast button to be put on if viewed by a Chrome browser, etc.
    Google - you have support for the fire stick, right? And you'll let them have YouTube like everyone else?

    Honestly, when you start talking to multi-billion dollar corporations like children, there's something drastically wrong with their negotiating skills or attitude to business.

    • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday December 07 2017, @05:58PM

      by Freeman (732) on Thursday December 07 2017, @05:58PM (#606898) Journal

      So much this, but I have slowly been leaning toward the negative for both companies. The whole spiderman "with great power comes great responsibility" thing. Except, where corporations are concerned, all I ever see is "great power" and "government bail-out" or "Quarterly Financial". How about "giant corporation X to devote some previously unheard of sum/resources" to help the homeless, or something that would directly benefit society as a whole. You know other than the whole, I have lots of money, I like to roll in it, and "Oh, can you help train this H1B?", thanks.

      --
      Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @06:34PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @06:34PM (#606926)

      "I have Google Play Movies and Amazon Prime videos."

      well, that's depressing.

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