TechCrunch
Both Apple And EA Deny Money Exchanged To Keep Plants Vs. Zombies 2 Off Android
Apple and EA are both categorically denying a report that surfaced late yesterday that money exchanged hands to keep Popcap hit Plants Vs. Zombies 2 an exclusive to iOS. Reached for comment on the matter, both EA and Apple told us that “it’s simply not true.”
The report, from gaming site Giant Bomb, had quoted EA Labels head Frank Gibeau as telling employees at a closed meeting that “Apple gave us a truckload of money to delay the Android version [of Plants vs Zombies 2].”
Since the meeting was a closed session, EA would not comment on what was said there, but our sources are telling us that Gibeau did indeed make a statement similar to that. But we’re also hearing that it was intended as an off-the-cuff joke of sorts, and was taken out of context by either the report or the source used for the quote.
But both EA and Apple absolutely denied that any payments were made to EA by Apple in exchange for iOS exclusivity on PvZ.
Since the game is not out for Android devices outside of China and launched on iOS several weeks ago, the reports were quick to garner attention and credibility. But whatever Gibeau said in the meeting, both companies are flat out saying that there was no agreement to pay EA.
Here’s the major catch to most of these arguments about Apple and exclusivity: It really does not need to pay developers cash to launch on iOS first, they do it anyway. The marketing power of the App Store is tremendous, and on a per-customer basis, iOS users spend more money and buy more apps than Android users. That’s also true on the whole for now, but could change as the sheer volume of Android devices neutralizes the smaller ‘per-device’ spend on the platform.
That’s not to say that there isn’t some effort by Apple to make sure that its platform is the most welcoming for marquee titles. Apple has a long history of working with publishers that it sees as doing good or high-profile work to promote their apps via large banners and editorial recommendations on the App Store. And I’m sure that the App Store division is doing its best to make sure that the top apps and games land on iOS first, if not only. If you want to call offers of promotion and praise in the App Store incentive, that’s fine. But it’s still not cash.
Those recommendations are worth big money to many developers, but they’re also not limited to big-name companies. We’ve seen one or two-man operations featured by Apple in many sections, including the big valuable top banners in its App Stores on Mac, iPhone and iPad.
In the games industry — and this is where it becomes easier to see why the gaming press would see this as reasonable — it’s all too common for platforms to pay publishers for exclusivity. Both Microsoft and Sony have their own studios that produce games, but also draft agreements with external publishers to juice the desirability of their consoles.
But we’ve yet to hear any confirmed reports of Apple doing the same for the App Store. As Android grows in addressable market, perhaps it will ‘go there’ at some point. But in this case, both companies deny anything like that is taking place.
Google Starts Supporting Google+ Hashtags In Search Queries
Google+ started supporting hashtags in May, and today the company announced that Google Search will now allow you to search for Google+ posts by using these hashtags. Given that there’s a little bit of Google+ in every Google product now, it’s no surprise that these Google+ hashtags are now finding their way into other Google products.
This new search feature is now live for English language users in the U.S. and Canada on google.com and google.ca.
In Google Search, users will now be able to search for hashtags like #AmericasCup and get a list of relevant Google+ posts in the right sidebar. Google won’t highlight posts from Twitter or Facebook in the sidebar, but it has put links to Twitter and Facebook right underneath the Google+ posts so users can search for these terms on those social networks, as well.
The links in these Google+ posts are all active and you can see how many +1s and comments a given post received. You can’t, however, interact with the post right on the search results page as there is no way to follow, +1 or comment on these search results without going to Google+ first.
It remains to be seen how popular this feature will be. Most users, I think, would probably prefer to see this feature work for Twitter hashtags. It’s doubtful that all that many Google users were clamoring for a better way to search for Google+ hashtags on Google Search, but maybe this will give this feature a bit more visibility.
For content owners, however, this feature definitely gives them an incentive to use hashtags in their Google+ posts (and to use Google+ in the first place). The top-right corner of the search results page, after all, is prime real estate, and getting your link to show up there could drive significant traffic for popular hashtags.
Gmail For Android Updated With Card-Style Layout
Google’s Gmail application for Android is being updated today with a new design which will bring Google’s now preferred “card style” user interface to the Conversation View within the app. This layout, which Google popularized through its Google Now search application, has become the new go-to design paradigm at Google, arriving across other Google products and services, including Google Drive, the new Google Wallet apps, Maps, Google+ and elsewhere.
It mimics the idea of using index cards, and fits somewhere between minimalism and skeuomorphism, as Fast Company’s recent deep dive into Google’s design process explained.
In Gmail, cards will be used to better highlight multi-person, threaded messages in the app’s “Conversation view,” allowing for a “new, cleaner design,” states the company in a post on Google+ this afternoon.
In addition, the app will include other design tweaks, like checkmarks for multiple message selection which makes it easier to see which emails you’re about to move, delete or archive en masse. And the app will alert you in your inbox if account sync is turned off for some reason, to help keep you from missing messages.
Though some users are already seeing an app update in Google Play, not everyone is seeing the updated design just yet. The rollout is a staged one, so your mileage may vary, as they say.
News of the updated Gmail app comes on the heels of some serious issues which affected Gmail’s delivery times for an entire day on Monday. Even now, it seems the damage to the Gmail brand continues – many people have called me today, for example, saying, “oh, I thought I’d dial you since I just don’t trust Gmail right now.” That may be why now is a time for a little good news from Gmail… well, good news if you actually like the card-style layout, that is.
Automattic Acquires File-Sharing Service Cloudup To Build A Faster Media Library And Enable Co-Editing
Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, has acquired file-sharing service Cloudup, which launched in beta in June. The acquisition will help Automattic improve two features of WordPress.com in particular: the media library used for uploading visual content and post editing to give multiple users the ability to edit at one time.
Cloudup is an offshoot of ed-tech company LearnBoost, which was founded in 2010, meaning it includes the same team and existing investors. LearnBoost co-founder and CTO Guillermo Rauch said the classroom management service will continue to operate under Automattic, as well.
Out of the gate, the Cloudup team will focus on revamping the post editor and replacing WordPress.com’s media library with Cloudup. Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg said that the service is much more advanced, elegant, and intuitive than WordPress.com’s current media uploader. ”Not many people say their favorite [WordPress.com] feature is the media library,” he noted.
It was an understatement. Cloudup’s technology will enable multiple parties to edit and write at the same time, meaning a writer could be drafting the text while a photographer uploads images to the same post. The service also allows for sharing a file before it is done uploading, meaning that a second party can begin viewing the file before it is complete.
Mullenweg said that he sees WordPress.com’s forthcoming co-editing capabilities as different from services like Google Docs. The latter fundamentally treats documents as documents, he said, whereas a blog post or page is a much richer experience due to its video, image, and gallery features.
Mullenweg did not give an estimate on when users will see the fruits of the integration, but he said their intention is to have it up as soon as possible.
According to Rauch, the Cloudup beta is a complete product, as some of the open-source technology that powers the system has been in development for years. Still, Mullenweg said there will likely be significant work to be done in scaling the Cloudup infrastructure and integrating it with WordPress.com and with Jetpack by WordPress.com.
Cloudup, which has accumulated around 10,000 active users since June, will continue to be available independently of WordPress.com. Automattic will continue running it and adding new features, and the service will soon be open to the public.
Although it would be an easy source of revenue, Mullenweg said that there are currently no plans to monetize on the service.
“We think Cloudup is something intrinsically useful to have in the world, and Automattic’s core businesses in WordPress.com, VIP, VaultPress, and Akismet are doing more than well enough for us as a company,” he said.
Mullenweg has said before that his goal is to see WordPress.com power the majority of all sites on the Internet — they are currently at just over 20 percent market share — and that the first step toward that end is simply improving WordPress.com as a platform. Cloudup helps accomplish that. For sites like TechCrunch, which uses the platform, the ability to co-edit a post and upload photos faster would certainly be an improvement in the flow of using WordPress.
This is Automattic’s 12th acquisition after Lean Domain Search, Poster, Simperium, CodeGarage, After the Deadline, Blo.gs, PollDaddy, IntenseDebate, BuddyPress, Gravatar and Plinky.
Mullenweg said the acquisition was for both talent and technology, as he had been aware of LearnBoost’s open source ethos and had followed Rauch’s work for a number of years.
This acquisition brings Automattic’s total employee count to just over 200 people. While the majority of Cloudup employees are San Francisco based, three are international. One will be Automattic’s first Brazil-based employee, which extends the company’s reach to 29 countries.
Growing the Automattic team to the intended thousands of employees will be 95 percent hiring, Mullenweg said, with only a small percentage coming from acquisitions like this.
Instacart, Growing Rapidly In Chicago, Adds Recipes To Its Grocery Delivery Service
Today Instacart, a grocery delivery service, added an initial set of recipes to its service, helping customers purchase groups of items that combine into finished dishes. For the non-chef among us (hello, my name is Alex), this is a boon.
The news is small for the day: Instacart has curated a list of recipes that its users can access. However, the company told TechCrunch that it intends to greatly expand that list, and eventually allow its users to upload their own recipes.
Instacart is a physical grocery delivery service that is expanding its digital platform. Recipes are an interesting addition and an anti-pivot of sorts. Instacart customers want to quickly order food that can be used to feed themselves and others, and recipes make that a simpler process.
If Instacart can grow its recipe list in an inexpensive way, and effectively bake it into its search process, I can see it being a popular option. Also, I am likely willing to buy more total items – thus increasing Instacart’s revenue – if I know where they are going. When I buy only what I need for the day, I spend less per order. Instacart doesn’t like that.
This won’t be the last non-ordering function that Instacart adds to its platform. Recipes are a natural expansion of ordering foodstuffs, and this addition to the platform could improve its unit economics. That and its recent expansion into Chicago, which I spoke about with Instacart CEO Apoorva Mehta. When we first spoke about it, I was skeptical. Could the company’s model work in Chicago, with its aggressive weather and huge land area?
But according to Mehta, in the first few days of Instacart’s arrival in the City Warm Forgot, it is already a larger market than Mountain View, Palo Alto, and the East Bay combined. That’s good news for Instacart, as Chicago is its first market outside of the larger San Francisco Bay Area.
Top Image Credit: normanack
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