Google is announcing today that it's working together with Microsoft on a new YouTube application for Windows Phone. Following a fight with Microsoft over its unauthorized YouTube app, the pair appear to have resolved their differences.
Google demanded that Microsoft should remove its app by May 22nd, but Microsoft issued an update to address some of Google's concerns earlier this week. Google says "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube’s API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks."
Microsoft, for its part, has said that it's happy to include ads in its YouTube Windows Phone application if Google allows it and provides access to an official API. It appears that Google is now willing to grant Microsoft access to its official API, following complaints from the software giant that Google has previously prevented it from offering consumers a fully featured YouTube app for Windows Phone.
Microsoft's move to release its own full YouTube Windows Phone application, instead of a simple link to a mobile site, was a clear move to thrust the issue into the public domain and apply pressure to Google to open up its API or face the risk of appearing unreasonable. Microsoft will now work with Google on the new app, and will "replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time," according to a Google spokesperson.
The controversy follows months of bickering between the two technology giants, and this latest episode follows an uproar that led to Google removing a block of its Maps service for Windows Phone users. A collaboration will clearly benefit mutual customers of Microsoft and Google who simply want to use a Windows Phone with Google's web services.
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