Technology

YouTube has long been the key to Vevomusic syndication services, and in a blog post today, the company announced plans to focus even more on the site. The effort, which finds Vevo, &focused on engaging the biggest audiences and pursuing growth opportunities,& also involves trimming away some of the elements it deems unnecessary to that strategy.

On the chopping block are VevoiOS, Android and Windows apps, along with the consumer-facing side of its own site. &To be most effective in achieving those goals,& Vevo writes, &we will phase out elements of our owned and operated platforms.&

Those who have been viewing servicecontent through its proprietary offering will get access to tools for importing things like playlists to YouTube. Of course, the Universal/Sony/Warner Music-owned service is doing this precisely at the moment that YouTube is launching its own music service to compete with the likes of Spotify.

That ultimately could put a hamper on the companyplans to essentially put all of its eggs into the YouTube basket. The company hasn&t yet announced what non-YouTube platforms will ultimately be key to its strategy moving forward, though Variety notes that, for now, at least, the company is continuing to offer apps for some smart TVs.

Amazonunannounced YouTube competitor could be on the list, as the company looks to provide its own video platform for the Echo. For now, however, Vevo will continue to focus on advertising and original content, as it leans even more heavily on Googlevideo service.

Google earlier this year rebranded all of its payment services under Google Payto help it double down on making transactions across its platform more frictionless (and more used). Now comes another development: PayPal and Google are kicking off a deep integration, where users who add their PayPal details to their Google Play accounts will be able to pay bills and for other items, using PayPal, without logging in and without leaving the Google services.

The integration, when it goes live later this year, will cover apps like Gmail, YouTube, Google Store and any services using Google Pay — and it will include not just payments but also peer-to-peer transfers.

This is not the first time that Google and PayPal have worked together — the latter has been a payment option in Google Playsince 2014, in-store, and in online transactions that were managed by Google and a Google Pay option since last year. And similarly, Google itself has a number of other partners from the payments world, including Braintree, Sripe, Cybersource, Vantiv, Visa and Mastercard.

This new phase of the relationship is interesting for how it benefits both sides. For Google, it will mean that users are less likely to leave Google sites to complete a transaction, potentially never to return; and will give users one more option for how to pay for things, making Googleown sales more likely to be completed rather than abandoned. For PayPal, it will give users one more easy option for using its rails when buying things, and that will translate into more transaction revenues for PayPal.

We&re in an interesting phase in the world of payments at the moment. The challenge is no longer getting people used to the idea of paying online: a substantial proportion of consumers in developed markets are willing and able to pay for items on digital platforms. The problem is one of trying to capture and keep users& attention: there are potentially now too many payment options, and too many places for us to visit too easily. The struggle for app publishers, platform owners, and others now is to keep people engaged in yourproduct, rather than migrating elsewhere, which could lead to people abandoning their purchases and also leaving your service for another one.

This is part of the reason why Amazon is so effective: it provides a very seamless and quick way for people to browse and buy things, even more so if you are a Prime subscriber.

In payments, this is translating into a new wave of services where transactions are being enabled at the point at which you need them, with minimal friction: no log-ins, no jumping to new sites or apps, no additional steps. Google and PayPal are not the only ones who are now knitting all of this together more tightly.

Just earlier this month, Microsoft integrated its own answer to Google Pay, Microsoft Pay, into Outlook precisely for this reason, with Stripe as one of the first active integration partners. And PayPal itself is buying mobile payments company iZettle to close the loop better on point of sale payments in markets like Europe.

I asked Bill Ready, the EVP and COO of PayPal (and previously the co-founder and head of Braintree), why ittaken this long to get this integration in place on Google. I didn&t get a direct answer, but a hint that although tighter integration is the goal, itnot always that easy to stitch together services from different silos:

&We are always looking for ways to improve the experience and to make payments even more seamless and secure for our customers wherever they want to pay,& he said. &After the successful launch with Android Pay last year, which built on our existing integration with Google Play, our teams came together to enable this new experience, which will allow customers in the U.S. who addPayPalto any one of Googleservices to be able to pay across the Google ecosystem, anywhere thatPayPalis offered as a payment method, with only minimal setup.&

Pornhub is diversifying. The most popular site that no one you know will admit to frequenting, is launching its very own VPN service today, called, get this: VPNHub. The app, which is available on Android, iOS, MacOS and Windows, is primarily designed to offer &free and unlimited bandwidth,& according to its creators.

Itan attempt to circumvent ISP throttling, a potential boon for those who frequently visit sites with lot of video. Sites like, well, PornHub. &With 90 million visitors a day, the vast majority of whom are using devices on the go, itespecially important that we continue to ensure the privacy of our users,& VP Corey Price said in a statement.

The app is free on the aforementioned mobile platforms, but therea premium for desktop users. Another higher tier will drop ads, offer faster connection speeds and provide logins in additional countries, according to the company. That one runs either $13 a month or $90 for a full year subscription.

Of course, there are some privacy concerns to contend with, including some security issues that have arisen in recent months. This WTF is a VPN primer should good you a good overview of what you&re contending with a bit more broadly.

&Assume that all the free VPN apps that you see in the App Store and Google Play are free for a reason,& Romain wrote in the piece. &They&ll analyze your browsing habits, sell them to advertisers, inject their own ads on non-secure pages or steal your identity. You should avoid free VPNs at all costs.&

So, keep that in mind.

If you want to take the leap, however, the service is available now. Therealso a free seven-day trial for the premium version.