The War For the Web
The latest salvo in the war for domination of the online video and data serving wars was fired this morning.
Google has acquired On2 Technologies, we’ve learned. On2 Technologies is best known as a video compression and codec vendor. That sounds wonky, but pay attention…
Because we spend a lot of time working to make the overall web experience better for users, we think that video compression technology should be a part of the web platform. To that end, we’re happy to announce today that we’ve signed a deal to acquire On2 Technologies, a leading creator of high-quality video compression technology.
Although we’re not in a position to discuss specific product plans until after the deal closes, we are committed to innovation in video quality on the web, and we believe that On2 Technologies’ team and technology will help us further that goal.
This could bring major improvements for casual web users (of course I’ve been wrong about Google’s acquisition-innovations in the past). What sort of improvements?
TechCrunch lays out some ideas:
If would be great if Google decides to open-source On2’s VP7 and VP8 video codecs and free them up as the worldwide video codec standards, thus becoming alternatives to the proprietary and licenced H264 codecs. On2 has always claimed VP7 is better quality than H264 at the same bitrate.
Also noteworthy: Google could use the VP8 codec for YouTube in HTML5 mode, basically forcing its many users to upgrade to HTML5-compliant browsers instead of using Flash formats.
In other words, Google could surpass the need for technologies such as Adobe’s Flash or newer Air formats to not only serve video but also perform other functions that HTML 5 will bring (if you like GMail or Google Apps now, just wait).
The big loser (as seems to be often the case) is Microsoft and its interesting Silverlight play (cue Steve Gillmor).
By having codecs necessary for HTML 5 and a slew of video compression technologies, Google is rerouting Microsoft’s attempt to penetrate Google’s flank with Silverlight. Video, streaming and virtual app architecture has long been one of Google’s potential weaknesses. With the acquision of On2, Google is clearly patching up that vulnerability and making moves to position itself at the center of the evolving real-time and video-driven web.
Fascinating times.
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