Google kicks Apple with YouTube mobile Web update

Google updated its mobile YouTube Web site to support better-quality video and an improved user interface. The upgrade is a kick in the keister to Apple, making the native YouTube iPhone app a whole lot less relevant.

Features of the new m.youtube.com: It's "really fast" and the "user interface incorporates larger, more touch-friendly elements, making it easier to access videos on the go," according to Google's announcement on its YouTube blog. The mobile site has capabilities borrowed from the full-size site, including search query suggestions, the option to create playlists, the ability to designate favorite videos and like and unlike videos directly from the device.

"In many ways the new mobile site now makes the native iPhone YouTube app obsolete," writes MacRumors.com's Arnold Kim.

Native phone apps like the iPhone's fall behind the new mobile Web app in several ways, writes Alex Chitu of the Google Operating System blog. "Unfortunately, the native applications are rarely updated, so users miss the new features added to Google's service. A good example is the YouTube application for iPhone, developed by Apple, which still uses 5-star ratings, doesn't support captions, annotations or search suggestions and offers a single sharing option: email. Google's YouTube application for Android is not much better, even if it's updated faster."

Google sees the mobile Web as becoming more important, over time, than the Web on the desktop. "According to a recent report, within five years more users will connect to the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs," the company said on the YouTube blog. YouTube Mobile gets more than 100 million video playbacks a day, about the same as the number that the whole service got when it was acquired by Google in 2006.

Clearly, Google is trying to benefit its users with the new Web application. But the mobile YouTube upgrade is also part of Google's ongoing war against Apple. The two companies have competing phones (Android vs. iPhone), and competing ad platforms (Google's search ads vs. Apple's new iAd ad network for apps). By favoring its Web app over the native iPhone app, Google is severing a dependence on Apple. Apple controls the iPhone app, but on the Web, Google controls its own destiny.

Google is in a enviable position in its competition with Apple. If Google's Android wins against the Apple iPhone, then obviously Google wins. But even if the iPhone wins, Google can still win, because one of the main uses for the iPhone is to access the Web, and as long as people are using Google services on the Web, then Google wins. Whereas Apple is basing its strategy on the iPhone and iPad. Those devices, based on the iOS operating system, are the fastest-growing parts of Apple's business. But if the iOS platform loses, then Apple loses too.

Which is not to say that Apple's position is weaker than Google. The iPhone and iPad are hugely successful. It's just that the two companies' strategies are very different. Apple is putting all its eggs in one basket, but, contrary to the popular wisdom, that's not necessarily a bad idea if you watch that basket! Mark Twain said that, and he was no dummy.

Mitch Wagner is a freelance technology journalist and social media strategist.