How would MS like it if Google were to say "Hey, we want Office for Android, so since you guys don't seem to be interested in developing it, how about we go ahead and write it and you guys can give us permission to use the Word, Excel and Powerpoint trademarks? Thanks".
I don't see MS agreeing here and while Youtube is more of a service than an app, the point stands.
As for the Youtube app thing, it sounds very unlikely to me. There is no such thing as 'Google Corporate', Youtube was long ago integrated completely into Google. Co-operating with MS on an app is something that would have to be approved at the very highest levels (Larry Page or at the very lease Salar Kamangar) and it sounds unlikely that it could have been just a project which got shut down. I know a couple people who work at Google's San Bruno office on the Youtube ads team and none of them were aware such a thing existed. It sounds like MS FUD to me.
I don't see how that's comparable. Microsoft Office is proprietary software, however, you're still able to make your own application that supports Office formats. There's LibreOffice for Windows, Mac, Linux, and I think Android is coming soon. OpenOffice is another desktop application that supports Office formats. There are several apps on Android including Kingsoft Office, Quickoffice Pro, and Documents to Go. Google Docs (Google Drive now?) supports Office formats too.
Meanwhile, YouTube isn't proprietary software that you have to pay for, it provides access to content. Facebook and Twitter didn't seem to have a problem with Microsoft making the app instead of them, but Google does.
YouTube is dominant in video, and I think Google is using this to their advantage.
Microsoft has done anticompetitive stuff like this in the past, and they've gotten into trouble for it, so why not Google? I think people have the impression that Google is not evil and can do no wrong, while Microsoft is. So people take the stance of when Google does something that is anticompetitive, it's justifiable; but when Microsoft does something anticompetitive, they should be punished.
alt-text said:
Facebook, Apple, and Google all got away with their monopolist power grabs because they don't have any 'S's in their names for critics to snarkily replace with '$'s.
What part is FUD?
"Microsoft is ready to release a high quality YouTube app for Windows Phone."
"Microsoft has continued to engage with YouTube personnel over the past two years to remedy this problem..."
"...we learned from YouTube that senior executives at Google told them not to enable a first-class YouTube experience on Windows Phones."
If these are lies, why hasn't Google said anything?