Google Reader Lays the Groundwork for HTML5 Video

Google Reader has added preliminary support for HTML5 media features, specifically, the <video> and <audio> tags. In theory, it means that you’ll be able to watch HTML5 clips embedded in feeds inside the reader, just like you can with directly linked media files like MP3s. Of course, playing any video or audio file depends on HTML5 support in your browser.

The feature was announced on the official Google Reader Twitter account. The tweet doesn’t reveal much except for the fact that Reader now supports both the <video> and the <audio> tags. HTML5 videos are recognized in Google Reader, though the player failed to work in the latest Chromium build for the test video Google engineer Mihai Parparita put up. It failed to work in Firefox too, but this was likely due to the fact that Firefox didn’t support the H.264 codec used by Vimeo, where the video was hosted.

This leads to the old, familiar problem with HTML5 video. While the technology is here, bickering over the video-codec choice means that plugin-free videos online are currently in a deadlock. Sites like Vimeo or YouTube have implemented HTML5-based video players, but these work only in specific browsers, Google Chrome and Apple Safari.

What’s more, there is currently no option to embed a video using HTML5 on either Vimeo or YouTube, so you’ll probably have a very hard time finding a feed that features an HTML5 video. But this is likely also due to the fact that feed readers don’t support the feature, a classic chicken-versus-egg problem.

In this sense, the fact that Google Reader now supports the <video> and <audio> tags is great. It lays the groundwork for a future, hopefully not so distant, when HTML5 video will get the support it needs to become widespread. If the rumor that Google will release the VP8 video codec as open source turns out to be true, this might be a lot sooner than you think. [via Google Operating System]