May 6, 2011 15:33 GMT  ·  By

In its constant watch of Internet and technology trends, W3C decided yesterday, May 5th 2011, to launch a special Working Group to test and define a set of standards for real-time communications in web browsers.

The group's goal will be to deliver a set of client-side APIs to enable a more uniform way of delivering real-time information from the provider to the user's browser client.

As the group's charter statement reads: “These APIs should enable building applications that can be run inside a browser, requiring no extra downloads or plugins, that allow communication between parties using audio, video and supplementary real-time communication, without having to use intervening servers.”

This means that remote services like Twitter, Facebook, UStream, etc. would be able to access a set of browser API functions and gain access to important PC devices or functions, without the  need of add-ons, plugins or special applications running on the user's computer or mobile device.

These new API functions, if agreed upon, would need to be embedded in current browsers and would address areas like P2P, multimedia streaming, device capabilities and media capturing.

Browser will support and allow real-time communications with features like device detection (speakers, camera, microphone), media recording (images, video, sound), media delivery of data streams (play multimedia back, also covered partially in HTML5), media streaming and support direct P2P connections.

The Web Real-Time Communications Working Group will be a part of the W3C's Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity plan, a strategic activity group supervising other similar working groups like the Geolocation Working Group, the POI (Points of Interest) Working Group and the Device APIs and Policy Working Group.

All these groups will address and work together in enhancing the way real-time interactions are handled on the browser and the provider's side.

For now, the group is still in its inception, but more news should be available via their mailing list or website.