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So, Google is dropping support for H.264 video in their Chrome browser. (yawn)
As a website and Flash developer I've been recommending adopting H.264 video as a standard for a long time. However, I'm not worried about back-tracking just yet.
Prior to this announcement, the only browsers that supported H.264 were Safari, Internet Explorer, and Chrome. There never was enough support to consider it ubiquitous, UNLESS you consider that most browsers support Flash, which supports H.264 video quite nicely. The only major player that isn't supporting Flash is Apple's Safari on their iPad and iPhone, and guess what? Those devices will still happily play H.264 video.
In my opinion, the only outcome of the Google announcement will be this: web developers will take another look at their video choices, and note the following:
- H.264 has widespread hardware and software support
- Nobody wants to encode their video twice or use twice as much hard drive space
- H.264 will always be free for end-users
- Between Flash and Apple, we're pretty much covered for H.264 support
I think most developers will continue using H.264 in most web video applications, and the open-standards advocates have a big job ahead in changing the minds of the masses. In the meantime, I'm taking the easy route.
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Multimediacs 
