[opendtv] The Empire Strikes Back: Microsoft Goes After Google on Web Video Formats
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2011 10:52:52 -0500
http://mobilized.allthingsd.com/20110202/microsoft-goes-after-google-again-this-time-on-web-video-formats/?reflink=ATD_mktw_quotes
The Empire Strikes Back: Microsoft Goes After Google on Web Video Formats
by Ina Fried
Posted on February 2, 2011 at 6:00 AM PT
The war between Google and Microsoft is clearly heating up.
After being accused of copying Google's search results on Tuesday,
Microsoft is now going after Google, accusing it of injecting
inconsistency and legal uncertainty into the Web video arena by only
natively supporting the newly open-sourced WebM video format in its
Chrome browser, rather than the H.264 format preferred by Microsoft
and Apple.
In response, Microsoft said it will build a Chrome plug in that will
restore support for H.264, an older and more commonly used video
format. Microsoft said it plans to support H.264 in the next version
of Internet Explorer, although it will also allow plug-ins that
enable WebM support.
"Our point of view is totally clear," Internet Explorer head Dean
Hachamovitch writes in a blog post being posted on Wednesday. "Our
support for H.264 results from our views about a robust web and video
ecosystem that provides a rich level of functionality, is the product
of an open standards process like the W3C's HTML5 specification, and
has been free from legal attacks. Microsoft is agnostic and
impartial about the actual underlying video format for HTML5 video as
long as this freedom continues."
For its part, Google has said its decision to base its HTML 5 video
support around WebM is due to the royalties associated with H.264.
"We acknowledge that H.264 has broader support in the publisher,
developer, and hardware community today (though support across the
ecosystem for WebM is growing rapidly)," Google said in a blog post
in mid-January.
However, it said, "to use and distribute H.264, browser and OS
vendors, hardware manufacturers, and publishers who charge for
content must pay significant royalties-with no guarantee the fees
won't increase in the future."
Google added that, to companies such as itself "the license fees may
not be material, but to the next great video startup and those in
emerging markets these fees stifle innovation."
Hachamovitch, meanwhile, encouraged more discussion on the topic.
"Web video is still, in many ways, in its infancy," he said. "Working
through these questions is part of moving the web forward. The web is
a product of consensus and open dialog. This post is meant to be part
of the dialog."
Your move, Google.
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