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Google Blocks YouTube Access from Amazon's Streaming Devices

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Re: Google Blocks YouTube Access from Amazon's Streaming Devices

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did Amazon do?

Amazon removed Chromecast devices from Amazon.com and refuses to support Chromecast protocol from their services. They also removed Apple TV devices at the same time.

> refuses to support Chromecast protocol from their services

That’s a funny claim, considering Google intentionally has changed the protocol several times, to prevent any third party implementation of the protocol – including Amazons, and many Open Source libraries for it.

I was building an open source library for it when these changes happened, and I can tell you, it’s not pretty.

The only way to actually reliably stream to Chromecast, and to receive Chromecast streams, is with Google’s proprietary library for it. On Android, this is included in the Google Play Services.

Obviously, on Amazon Kindles, these aren’t preinstalled (due to their restrictive terms), so Amazon had their own implementation (which, as mentioned, Google acted against)

Re: Google Blocks YouTube Access from Amazon's Streaming Devices

#52
post #32

Curious, is this a violation of net neutrality? This seems even worse for the consumer than simply having to pay more. At least then you still can get access. Do we clamor for the government to come regulate it? Be careful when considering this so as not to be inconsistent with your reasoning behind NN for ISPs.

No. the network refers to the transit medium. Network non-neutrality would make it worse because comcast could decide you can't watch youtube or amazon video on any device.

The network only refers to the transit medium if your premise is that the power to control content lie with one particular interest group instead of another.

What's special about Twitter that they get to decide who can use their computers, routers, switches and so on, whereas level-3 is not allowed to do the same?

Re: Google Blocks YouTube Access from Amazon's Streaming Devices

#53
post #14

If only Net Neutrality went both ways...

While I understand NN is a hot topic in these past few months, I'm having a hard time understanding the connection here. Are we suggesting that there should be some sort of mandated cross-platform compatibility requirement for all cloud video services on all devices? Meaning, do we really want to require that Google provides access to all YouTube content on everyone's device? What if I post a video on my own homepage, am I then required to make it available on all devices?

I think both Google and Amazon are acting like jerks here, but I can't think of federal-level rules I'd change or put into place that wouldn't make things worse.

Re: Google Blocks YouTube Access from Amazon's Streaming Devices

#54

they were never good at each other. To have the best of two worlds is to have one Chromecast and one Fire TV. At least I don't need an Apple TV nowadays because Chromecast is good enough for local streaming and some occasional mirroring from Mac (although not the same quality as Apple TV).

> they were never good at each other. To have the best of two worlds is to have one Chromecast and one Fire TV. At least I don't need an Apple TV nowadays because Chromecast is good enough for local streaming and some occasional mirroring from Mac (although not the same quality as Apple TV).

https://youtu.be/9pmPa_KxsAM?t=10402

My guess is this goes all way to the top, to Larry:

> It started when a guy from Mozilla asked a question about the future of the Web and mobile platforms. Page dove right in. “I’ve personally been quite sad at the industry’s behavior around all these things," he said. "If you take something as simple as IM, we’ve had an open offer to interoperate forever. Just this week Microsoft took advantage of that by interoperating with us. You can’t have people milking off of just one company.”

> He was referring to Microsoft’s announcement that it would incorporate Google Talk into Outlook.com, even though it doesn’t allow Google to incorporate Outlook functions into Gmail. But as AllThingsD’s Mike Isaac noted, he left out the part where Google recently sent Microsoft a cease-and-desist letter demanding that it remove the YouTube app from its Windows Phones.

> Page wasn’t finished. “You can’t focus on negativity and zero-sum games,” he said. “I don’t know how to deal with all of those things, and I’m sad that the Web isn’t advancing as fast as it should be. We struggle with people like Microsoft.” A question about Oracle and Java got him going again. “We’ve had a difficult relationship with Oracle, including having to appear in court,” Page said. “Money is obviously more important to them than any collaboration.”

> It turns out this is also the media’s fault. “Every story I read about Google is us vs. some other company, or some stupid thing. I just don’t find that very interesting. We should be building great things that don’t exist. Being negative isn’t how we make progress.”

> To recap, Page criticized Microsoft for treating Google as a rival, blasted Oracle for caring too much about money, and then whined about everyone being so negative. Heck, if it weren’t for those other companies standing in the way, Google would have probably already solved world hunger. Well, except for all the laws and bureaucrats and journalists who are also standing in the way.

https://archive.fo/OuL1T

I love the work that people at Amazon.com are doing. However, as we push upwards of 60% of US households on Amazon prime, I think we have reasons to be worried.

like acchow said:

> Amazon fired the first shots tho. This is their fault and they should put Google products back up on their store.

Re: Google Blocks YouTube Access from Amazon's Streaming Devices

#55

Know where I can still watch both Youtube and Amazon Video? On my ten year-old Playstation 3.

Interestingly enough, my Blu-Ray player lost Youtube access at some point because the vendor stopped pushing updates and Google changed the API. I don't blame Google, nor do I blame the hardware vendor - I don't expect my devices to receive software updates forever, and I don't expect Google to keep the same API forever either.

I do blame Google for breaking millions of devices for what can't amount to much more than a rounding error's worth of developer time/pay for them to keep the old APIs working. I'm disappointed that people don't seem to care about backwards compatibility anymore. As a general point, not everyone out there can afford to keep buying new things when companies drop support, which is an angle that's maybe overlooked because of the relatively affluent demographics on tech sites. For me, if I developed an app that didn't have some extremely pressing need for some new API call, I'd prefer not to abandon the people who can't buy new phones every two years.

Re: Google Blocks YouTube Access from Amazon's Streaming Devices

#56
post #15

Can we advance some kind of peace treaty? Google's philosophy is to "put users first and the rest will follow" [0] Amazon wants to be the world's most customer centric company. [1] - [0] https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/the-google-wa... - [1] https://www.amazon.jobs/working/working-amazon

That's not their philosophy, that's public relations.

Re: Google Blocks YouTube Access from Amazon's Streaming Devices

#57

Curious, is this a violation of net neutrality? This seems even worse for the consumer than simply having to pay more. At least then you still can get access. Do we clamor for the government to come regulate it? Be careful when considering this so as not to be inconsistent with your reasoning behind NN for ISPs.

> Curious, is this a violation of net neutrality?

No, Amazon leveraging it's exclusive content and video service to sell FireTV, or Google leveraging YouTube to sell Chromecast, is not a violation of Net Neutrality, or within the statutory mandate of the FCC even more generally.

Either might be a violation of anti-trust law within the purview of the FTC, of course.

Re: Google Blocks YouTube Access from Amazon's Streaming Devices

#58
post #38

This is one reason why the Roku is such a great streaming platform, they're neutral. You can receive VUDU (Walmart), Prime Video (Amazon), and YouTube/Play Movies (Google). The only thing you cannot receive is Apple's ecosystem (but no non-Apple streaming hardware can as far as I know). Same reason why Spotify is so prevalent, they too are neutral in this war between titans. I have no sympathy for Google or Amazon in…

With YouTube TV and Prime Video coming to the Apple TV, it actually will be the one device that has everything.

Until it isn't of course. It is challenging to understand how greedy these people are such that they really want both all the data (viewing habits, demographics, etc) and all the revenue.

Re: Google Blocks YouTube Access from Amazon's Streaming Devices

#59
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just use a device and content delivery platform that isn't developed by a content producer... like Roku, Kodi, etc.

What's to say Google doesn't pull YouTube API access from Roku or Kodi next? This salvo at Amazon isn't their first, and may not be their last.

Best way to prevent this kind of content hoarding is to support neutral platforms.

Re: Google Blocks YouTube Access from Amazon's Streaming Devices

#60
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did Amazon do?

Amazon took all products that can't stream Amazon content off their store. Google Cast players can't stream Amazon content because Amazon hasn't implemented the Cast SDK in their app. Amazon doesn't implement the Cast SDK because their flavor of Android eschews Google Play Services which is required for the Cast SDK on Android. Google doesn't license the Google Play Services to Amazon because.... We can go around for…

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