GOOGLE COZIES UP TO APPLE

Written by Ophir Gottlieb

PREFACE
Google just (quietly) announced it has created a new app for iPhone users that expands its Google Search ecosystem. But the news goes further than that. First, a step back:

As we wrote earlier today, Google (and Facebook) does face a frightening threat from Apple in general, and ad blocking software in particular.



In response to that rather disturbing trend, Google is exploring the creation of an "acceptable ads policy." This would be an attempt to create an industry-standard for online ad formats and that format would be "illegal to block."

Google's SVP of advertising, Sridhar Ramaswamy, went so far late last year to say:


Yes, the top advertising executive at Google used the word "survival."

That was step one for Google. Step two appears to be a cozying up to Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). This news just broke from the official Google blog:


BREAKING
Google is warming up to Apple, in particular its iPhone, which is a major revenue driver for advertising dollars. What better way to appease Apple than to do this:


And then the company shared this photo:



Now there's one thing to note and it's impossible to ignore:

This app is not available for Android.

Yes, that's right, Gboard has been made available for iOS (the iPhone) first, before Google's own Android operating system.

As for what it does, here's a quick recap:


Here's an example:



Gboard works in any app-messaging, email, YouTube-so you can use it anywhere on your phone.

BOTTOM LINE
As we said at the top -- Google is playing nice with iPhone owners to both expand its search ecosystem, but perhaps more importantly, to protect its existing ecosystem and advertising money flow, which represents about 80% of the company's revenue in total.

This isn't market moving news, but in many ways it's this news that really matters. By the time it gets to the mainstream media, it's too late to react or analyze. This action from Google isn't the end-all be-all, but it isn't trivial. This is a calculating, brilliant, methodical company, and playing nice with Apple, especially its iPhone, is not an accident.

WHY THIS MATTERS
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Thanks for reading, friends.