Google to take on Apple's AirPlay

Google is constantly upping the ante against Apple when it comes to its services. According to GigaOm, Google is working on an alternative to Apple's AirPlay service. The first step towards this was taken in the recent launch of YouTube's AirPlay-like video beaming. This allows users to 'send' a clip from the Android YouTube app to a Google TV set or set-top-box.

Google product manager Timbo Drayson told GigaOm, "We really want to move the whole industry forward." Drayson also explained that the company was working with manufacturers to unify the Google system as an open standard.

The company is gunning for Apple

One of the biggest reasons for the sales of Apple TV could be Apple's AirPlay, which allows users to simply watch content beamed from their iPhones and iPads on their Apple TVs. Google certainly wants a bite of this, as this could see a spike in the sales of Google TV and Android tablets.

One of the other projects in Google's roadmap is the ability to beam content from your laptop to your TV screen.

Google seems to be gunning for Apple, with the announcement of its scan-and-match music service last month. The new service is a part of Google Music and will be like Apple’s iTunes Match service. The service scans your music collection and lets you stream it from other devices. While Apple charges $24.99 (approximately Rs 1,347), Google is set to release its service for free.

According to the post on Google’s blog, “We’ll scan your music collection and any song we match against the Google Play catalog will be automatically added to your online library without needing to upload it, saving you time.” The whole process is said to be free, including matching, syncing, and streaming. According to the blog, the service is slated to launch on November 13.

Google had also announced expansion of its Google Play service, bringing more content to more countries. The company has partnered with Twentieth Century Fox, Time, People, InStyle, and others, to bring more TV shows, movies, and magazines to the service. Along with this, Google has partnered with Warner Music Group, which will add its complete music catalogue with new songs being added every day. The company plans to launch the expanded Google Play in Europe on November 13, with the first countries to get it being the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

Earlier today, Google announced that users will have the option to link their YouTube channel with their Google+ page. The advanced Google+ page management features that allow up to 50 people to manage a single Google+ page, or one person to manage up to 50 Google+ pages, will work for channels that have been linked with Google+ pages. Folks at Google have been trying this option with Google Analytics, YouTube Creators, etc., and are planning to make this feature available to all creators in the weeks to come.

The upcoming features build upon Google's attempts to enable YouTube users to change the way they appear on the platform, by using their Google+ profile on their YouTube channel. Users may have spotted prompts inviting them to use their Google identity on YouTube.