The Future (Of Video) Changed Today

Everyone has heard of HTML5, I'm sure. Apple has been pushing it HARD as an "open" alternative to Adobe's Flash Player for video. However, what few realize is that HTML5 doesn't specify the video format, just how to "wrap" it in a web page. Apple has pushed for HTML5 with H.264 format video. YouTube has used it so far, and it works fine. But it's not exactly "open" like Apple wants you to believe, it is patented by various groups and fees must be paid to an industry organization called MPEG-LA. Yeah... And Apple seems to like it that way. It works well and it's use prevents truly open software from using it freely.

Google, though, makes their money on ads. That means serving as many people as possible. Including us who want affordable, customizable, open platforms. Earlier this year they bought a company called On2 technologies that makes a competing video "codec" called VP8 that's just as good as, if not better than, H.264. Everybody expected Google to make it free. And today, they did. What I think far fewer people expected, was it to gain support.

And today, it did. In addition to Google, VP8 (now part of The WebM Project) is being supported by industry giants such as Mozilla, Opera, Adobe, and Skype. As well as many other companies that you wouldn't recognize immediately, but are responsible for the hardware of many devices we use such as Nvidia, Texas Instruments, and Qualcomm.

This changes everything. (At least in terms of a good cross-platform video solution...).