14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft played a game of chicken with Google and seems to have lost, it is now making changes to the YouTube app for Windows Phone which violated YouTube's terms of service.
But it may have gotten what it wanted out of the entire thing, to make Google look like a bully which won't allow others to play with its toys.
Microsoft built the YouTube app knowing full well that it didn't comply with the terms of service. But it completed the app, published it and waited for a reaction.
Obviously, there was one, Google sent a cease and desist letter asking Microsoft to shut down the app or modify it to comply with the terms of service every other YouTube developer complies it, including Microsoft with the Xbox YouTube app.
What irked Google the most was the fact that the app removed ads, the only source of revenue for YouTube, and that it allowed users to download videos.
Microsoft has decided to comply with some of Google's requirements, it will no longer allow downloads, the latest version of the app has this functionality disabled.
"Microsoft updated the Windows Phone YouTube app to address the restricted video and offline video access concerns voiced by Google last week," the company said in a statement.
"We have been in contact with Google and continue to believe that our two companies can work together to hone an app that benefits our mutual customers, partners and content providers," it added.
But Microsoft won't abide by the second complaint because it can't. Microsoft only has access to the public YouTube API which doesn't support ads. Google won't build an app that has ads for Windows Phone either, so Microsoft doesn't have much of a choice.
Google offered Microsoft a May 22 deadline to make the changes. Microsoft complied with some of the requests, but not all, so the ball is in Google's court now.