Microsoft is getting involved with the European Union’s antitrust investigation regarding Google, mostly regarding the lack of information Google provides search engine competitors for indexing YouTube videos. But even more interesting is Microsoft’s claim that their app is lacking because Google won’t provide the Windows Phone 7 team with the necessary data for the YouTube app that the versions on Android and iOS have.
How’s this for the pot calling the kettle black? Microsoft has made an official complaint to the European Commission, claiming that Google is behaving in an anti-competitive way when it comes to search. Namely, their acquisition of YouTube back in 2006 meant that competing search engines were restricted from “properly accessing it for their search results”.
Word comes from the Financial Times today that US regulators are planning an antitrust investigation into Apple’s iAd mobile advertising platform. At issue: the iAd terms and conditions that allow Apple to shut out Google entirely from its potent ecosystem.
Bloomberg says that the possible antitrust inquiry Apple’s facing in fact stems from a complaint by Adobe, who was most publicly cockblocked by Apple’s new iPhone app development rules banning cross-compilers.
Datel, a company selling memory units for Xbox 360 consoles, filed an antitrust suit against Microsoft for blocking unauthorised third party memory units. Microsoft claims innocence, as the block is meant to reduce cheating on Xbox Live, not reduce competition.
