Microsoft YouTube App Strips Ads; Adds Download 381
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft appears to be sticking a finger in Google's eye with the launch of its new YouTube app for Windows Phone. The app, ReadWrite has confirmed, strips out YouTube ads when it plays back videos and allows users to easily download video by way of a prominent 'download' button."
Finally (Score:2, Insightful)
It's about time Microsoft did something nice for users.
Re:Google will block it (Score:2, Insightful)
But that would be evil.
Re:Who figured this out? (Score:5, Insightful)
If you don't have a youtube downloader in your browser, it's because you don't want one. And if you're seeing ads in youtube it's because you're not using adblock plus.
Youtube is supposed to paywall some premium content soon, which is fine. I'm not watching it anyway, so I'm not downloading it either. The kind of stuff I download from youtube mostly involves documentaries on subjects like Waco or what kids are eating, and I'm not also streaming it, so there's really no good reason for them to try to stop me.
Re:Google will block it (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, without looking into the matter, it sounds like a TOS issue here. Its either against the terms of service or not.
Re:Google will block it (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't think that there was a bit of collaboration in creating it, maybe?
Re:Google will block it (Score:5, Insightful)
it seems like MS is shooting themselves in the foot yet again.
They did that long ago when they refused to participate in other software ecosystems, and concentrated on locking competitors out by locking customers in.
Now their locked-in market is failing, and the world is bypassing their restrictions. They don't have time to develop good, competitive software, all they can do is assault competitors with any tools they have at hand.
It's an ugly, desperate thing we're seeing here.
Re:Google will block it (Score:5, Insightful)
I've been watching YouTube videos forever as an unregistered visitor and never seen a TOS.
So you're suggesting, based on your experiences, that the Microsoft Phone development team and their legal advisers can ignore any TOS that they choose not to read?
Fascinating...
Re:Google will block it (Score:4, Insightful)
because it worked so poorly for Apple too. they locked everyone in, a company that was about to fold, and then all hell broke loose. audio files that couldn't play on any other device are what killed the iPod's early years, and iTunes, and a phone that can only have apps that are bought through a closed store, of which the developers have to share money with Apple and can't have payments not through the store... it's just obvious that be being closed they strangled the industry. the app boom never happened, the smart phone market failed, and digital music services never took off.
Re:Google will block it (Score:5, Insightful)
I've been watching YouTube videos forever as an unregistered visitor and never seen a TOS.
So you're suggesting, based on your experiences, that the Microsoft Phone development team and their legal advisers can ignore any TOS that they choose not to read?
Fascinating...
A contract does not apply unless you agree to it. There is a lot of debate in the legal community whether TOS are valid at all, and the answer seems to be "it depends". I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know whether in this particular case the TOS applies but I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't.
Microsoft's developers are not agreeing to any TOS. Even if they did agree to it they are not on the board of directors and they are not in the legal department, so they're not authorised to agree on behalf of the corporation anyway.
With no TOS in place, that leaves the DMCA... but google doesn't use any DRM to force ads ads to appear or prevent downloads so I don't think there is any DMCA violation either.
If google adds some DRM though, even if it's weak DRM, microsoft would be in deep shit if they bypass it.
Re:Google will block it (Score:3, Insightful)
"Apple's share of the global smartphone market fell from 23% last year to 17% share this year, the largest year-over-year decline in the iPhone's history." According to Sanford Bernstein's Toni Sacconaghi, "if Apple does not introduce a new iPhone or lower-priced phone in CQ3 [Apple's fiscal Q4], it is quite possible that iPhone's smartphone market share could drop into the single digits."
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/tag/toni-sacconaghi/ [cnn.com]
Defeating the ads is trivial, allow me to demo... (Score:5, Insightful)
Supposed you want to wish your mother a Happy Dub Step Mothers Day with this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J0o65u73Nc [youtube.com]
But you want to strip the adds and go fullscreen:
Easy, simply change the URL: delete "watch?v=" and replace with "v/"
http://www.youtube.com/v/9J0o65u73Nc [youtube.com]
sarcasm
Microsoft must have some really smart developers to have figured out how to rewrite the YouTube URL using computer programming. I am going to run out and get a Surface with Windows 8 before Best Buy closes tonight. Microsoft might be adding more useful features soon and I don't want to miss out. It would be a shame to watch a 5 second YouTube Ad and support that rich Google company. Microsoft is sticking it to man! Wait, I thought they were the man. Hmmm... something has changed. I'm so confused.
sarcasm
A company and a society are judged and remembered by what they build and not what they destroy.
Re:Google will block it (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Then stop breaking the terms of service. (Score:5, Insightful)
No, they really don't owe it to you.
How much do you pay Google anyway, and for what? Most people pay only by consuming the increasingly-obnoxious ads. I think the ads on youtube are atrocious. But I'm pretty sure they do not, in fact, owe you an ad-free youtube. What are you, majority shareholder?
I pay a lot of money for my Internet service. Doesn't mean they owe me grocery delivery, or any other random thing I'd like and that their service happens to enable in a tangential way.
Re:Going to hurt videos available at some point (Score:5, Insightful)
fine... open your wallet... takers are SOOOO annoying.
I fucking wish I could pay as little to watch a TV show or movie as a comparable set of ads would return in revenue for being in front of my eyeballs.
Instead, some dickhead thinks I should pay ~5-10 cents a minute to watch one episode of his TV show. Naturally, 1080p costs twice as much too.
Re:Wrong measure (Score:4, Insightful)
Moreover It's margins are also vastly higher. So in terms of profit it has a majority of the market.
Consequences aren't always immediate.
How long do you think they can keep overcharging without providing a better product?
Re:Google will block it (Score:4, Insightful)
The courts consider downloading and streaming to be two different things.
Downloading means receiving the transmission from their server and recording it on non-volatile storage.
Streaming means receiving the transmission and storing it only as required for processing to send it to the screen / speakers, and for buffering to deal with speed variations in the transmission.
Re:Google will block it (Score:5, Insightful)
Apples stock also got cut in half. But if you want to ignore every financial number that means anything go right ahead.
Re:Going to hurt videos available at some point (Score:4, Insightful)
No you have it backwards. If you don't want to be part of the culture, lock up your content and don't show it to anyone. If someone can see it, they can tell someone about it, sharing in its most basic sense. *GASP* without paying you!
I say you make your works private and then you can have them all to your self! no one will get your precious content in any way you deem unfit! Perfect solution.