14 DAY TRIAL // Among the many announcements expected at this year’s Google I/O developer conference starting later today, one is of particular interest for HTML5 video. The tech company is rumored to open-source the VP8 codec created by On2, a company acquired by Google earlier in the year. New details are starting to pop up and one is the possible name of the project, WebM.
The WebM Project is apparently a larger initiative by Google around online video with the open source VP8 just part of the process. Dan Rayburn, a Frost & Sullivan analyst, claims that sources indicated that Google would be announcing the project today and provides an, as yet, unused domain registered by Google a few weeks ago. Webmproject.org just reads “Under Construction” for the moment, but a quick whois lookup reveals that Google registered the domain on April 28.
The anticipated announcement could prove very important for the future of HTML5 video. At the moment, parties involved have formed two sides, each supporting one video codec for use with HTML5 videos. Microsoft and Apple are on one side, supporting the largely free but proprietary H.264 codec, while Mozilla and Opera back the open-source Ogg Theora video codec. Their motivations, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each approach have been discussed before.
As it stands, neither party is willing to budge. Google supports both codecs in Google Chrome and is now expected to open-source the VP8 codec, On2's most advanced video compression technology to date. In theory, this should get things moving again, as it’s a codec choice that should appeal to all sides.
What’s more, Google is also in the position to promote and support VP8 through YouTube, which it owns, the Google Chrome web browser and with Android on the mobile front. It is rumored that Google may also be able to get hardware support for VP8, which would turn it into a viable competitor to H.264. [via CNET]