Jan Dawson, Tech Narratives:

Amazon announced last night that Google had pulled its YouTube app from the former’s Echo Show device, the company’s first screen-based voice speaker. YouTube was one of very few video options available on the Echo Show, with Amazon’s own Prime Video being the main alternative.

Amazon has something Apple wants and seeks to emulate in Prime Video. Amazon wants to protect Prime Video, is using its storefront power to horsetrade with Apple, swapping Apple TV presence on Amazon.com for a Prime Video app on Apple TV.

Google and Amazon are fighting a different battle. At the very least, there’s Google Home vs Amazon Echo. But there’s a subtle shopping competitiveness as well, with both trying to work into the first place consumers go when they want to make a purchase.

All of this might have nothing to do with why Google pulled YouTube (the claim is that Amazon’s implementation broke YouTube’s terms of service). It might have more to do with ads and tracking than anything else. But make no mistake, each pairing is its own chess match.