Open standards are what people had in mind when developing HTML 5.  Up until now, the lack of a open standard for video provided quite the hurdle for widespread acceptance and adoption of the new content delivery protocol.  Google is now providing as an open technology the VPP8 WebM codec acquired when Google bought out On2 Technologies back in August of 2009.  This codec was also used by Adobe Flash for streaming video.  Previously, H.264 was proposed for HTML 5.  However the downside is that encoding such video required royalties and payments of some type to ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group as well as the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group.  With the power of HTML 5, codecs would come with the web browser thereby creating the ability to have a plugin-free, feature rich, multimedia web experience. 

Apple is a major proponent to HTML 5 as it’s Safari web browser is HTML 5 draft compliant (with H.264).  Even Microsoft is planning HTML 5 adoption with Internet Explorer 9.  So what’s in store for us, the consumers?  With Google’s contribution, we’ll be able to produce as well as enjoy more content without the need to cough up more money.  Currently, both Mozilla and Opera are already offering nightly builds of their browser that support the new proposed codec, WebM.

Source: SD Times, Issue No. 248