What Google is doing is saying: "No, since we don't like your company, you will never be allowed to write an app for YouTube. Ever. We are assholes, and we own YouTube, and we hate Microsoft, so you can go f*ck your self".
Actually, the grandparent is wrong. At some point Microsoft will fix their app to work the same way the Blackberry one does and then Google will allow it through. Having made the promises they have openly made, anything else would open them up to a lawsuit. If Microsoft had any extra restrictions beyond those on Blackberry they would have told us about that. This is about something else; e.g. Microsoft wants to reduce Google's ability to present content so it is no better than their own and is pretending they don't understand some tag or other to do that. Alternatively, Microsoft won't agree to some data protection on some of the data they get or something similar.
If only that was what google actually was saying publicly I would cheer happily. Microsoft needs to die, the sooner the better, and they have absolutely zero reason to complain with their history of being evil.
But instead of publicly telling MS to fuck off, google is pretending that there is no problem at all. This is the same kind of scummy behavior I hate about MS, and so I cannot be happy about it.
There are a bunch of things to remember, for example:
- Microsoft is one of the biggest political donors going; they have more politicians bought on both sides of the US Houses than most other donors added together
- Microsoft has been making repeated anti-trust accusations against Google. They have used their political connections to drive those through.
- You might think that was just cheeky and hypocritical, but they have actually managed to get investigations started which is almost unheard of (Google was mostly cleared but their room for manoeuvre is being continually restricted)
- Microsoft currently have ongoing complaints in both the EU and US against Google's search engine and Android
- Microsoft is actively suing Motorola (owned by Google) to force them to allow Microsoft to use Motorola's almost for free whilst avoiding the FRAND obligations which should fall on Microsoft for doing so.
- At the same time, Microsoft is making more money than Google by overpricing it's own, completely outragously bad, patents and using those against phone manufacturers
Essentially Google is under continual legal siege from Microsoft. Almost anything they say to defend themselves will be used against them. They simply cannot afford to comply with what you request. Any public statements from them would place them at great risk somewhere.
The rest of us, people with no connection to Google, have to stand up to this playground bullying and say that it is wrong. Don't blame the victim. Don't allow Microsoft telling you "she was wearing a short skirt" / "she wasn't wearing a Burha" / "she didn't scream no loudly enough" to distract you from the fact that Microsoft is doing the raping and Google (and others) deserve support as the victims.
Until the legal system provides clear protection for Google from Microsoft it is unfair to demand that Google does anything.