I don't know about Play Store policies, but Apple's App Store definitely doesn't allow the app listing or the app itself to link to an external site for subscriptions or payment methods. See <https://gizmodo.com/5761383/apples-new-subscription-model-is... (I couldn't find a better reference after doing a quick search.)

Yes these are not comparable. Google favors user freedom and is diametrically opposite of Appples app store.

Google Maps, Waze, and other third-party apps are finally coming to CarPlay: https://www.zdnet.com/article/apple-carplay-ios-12-will-fina...

You can ask Alexa for a map to their house (as a follow up question after calling them)?

I apologize, my comment was very unclear. I wasn't implying that asking for directions was a follow up question for either Assistant. Or that Alexa could handle either of those commands. I was just providing an example of the Google Assistant's inconsistent behavior.

My statement was to establish context, stating that the Google Assistant has access to my Contacts because it can lookup a contact by name, pull the associated phone number, and execute a phone call. However, it cannot map directions to that Contact's address. I know it can Map directions because I use that heavily, it obviously can access contact information, and it can comprehend that a term is a contact name. So the pieces are all their, they just don't seem to fit together for whatever reason.

I'm going to guess that Alexa cannot map to someone's house either but I don't have an Echo Show so that's not something I can test. I also disabled the calling features because I have an objection to the way Amazon has implemented them.

If Amazon offered Alexa for your phone as a replacement for the Google Assistant, I might consider switching if it could handle Maps and Calls at least on par with the Google Assistant. And assuming it's calling functionality was the crap offered on the Echos. Timers and Reminders are about all I use the Google Assistant for beyond that and Alexa already handles those functions with ease.

Is there any reason to believe that Apple would even have this setting, if Google stopped paying them billions? After all, there's no setting to use a different browser, maps app, etc., by default.

I'd imagine that platform companies have greater obligations towards their developers.

Step 1: "the more consumers use a search engine" --> presumably because said consumers like the product (search engine)

Step 2: "more attractive to advertisers"

Step 3: "profits generated can then be used to attract even more consumers"

Wait, why were consumers attracted by the product (search engine) in the 1st step, but were convinced by the profits in the 3rd step?

Because they're a US company, duh.

Just like Toyota in the unintended acceleration problem was quickly found guilty of not being GM or Ford.

As the founder and CTO of Blekko search engine, one would imagine that you would be familiar with Google's personalized advertising policies: https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/143465?hl=en (Found through a quick Google search)

It's odd that you cut&pasted so many references to IAP, but totally missed the 2nd clause (immediately following the one about physical goods): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10429681

Nope: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10429681

You left out the second clause:

Developers offering products within another category of app downloaded from Google Play must use Google Play In-app Billing as the method of payment, except:

* where payment is solely for physical products; or

* where payment is for digital content that may be consumed outside of the app itself (e.g., buying songs that can be played on other music players).

Hmmm, except I can't play YouTube videos outside of YouTube and Play Music doesn't give me access to the raw MP3 files, therefore the second point wouldn't apply. I think the difference is that Google isn't proactively enforcing this rule so for example, the Kindle app can link to the Kindle store even though that's technically not allowed.

You can use the youtube app on your phone, or the browser on your laptop, or the youtube app on your tv. So it isn't content that can only be consumed in the app on your phone.