Google pulls YouTube from Amazon device
In a rare public feud between large technology companies, Amazon.com said on Tuesday its Echo Show devices could no longer play videos from YouTube because the site's parent, Google, stopped supporting the service.
In a statement, Amazon said: "As of this afternoon, Google has chosen to no longer make YouTube available on Echo Show, without explanation and without notification to customers. There is no technical reason for that decision, which is disappointing and hurts both of our customers."
Google said: "We've been in negotiations with Amazon for a long time, working towards an agreement that provides great experiences for customers on both platforms. Amazon's implementation of YouTube on the Echo Show violates our terms of service, creating a broken user experience. We hope to be able to reach an agreement and resolve these issues soon."
Amazon and Google square off in many areas, from cloud computing and online search, to selling voice-controlled gadgets like the Echo Show.
The Echo Show had displayed YouTube videos without integral features, from video recommendations to channel subscriptions. Google shas been in a similar dispute with Microsoft in the past.
It was not clear how many customers were affected. Amazon only started selling the Echo Show in June, which comes with a touchscreen and responds by voice command.
Amazon's suite of Echo devices, including the Echo and Echo Dot, have outsold the voice-controlled Google Home, according to research firm eMarketer. Amazon has ambitions to make it normal for people to control computers by voice - and to place orders for its online retail business by voice too.
"It's a bit of a blow to Amazon," said analyst Jan Dawson of Jackdaw Research. "YouTube is one of the big video services they had in addition to their own. For that to disappear means a big chunk of the possible video content you could watch on Echo Show is now gone." - Reuters