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Yesterday’s Google I/O keynote had the announcement of WebM, the new open source, royalty free video format intended for use with HTML5 video.
The aim of WebM is to develop “high quality, open video format for the web that is freely available to everyone”. This project has been backed by Google, Mozilla, Opera and numerous other companies.
There are two competing formats that are currently used for video embedding suing HTML5 and Ogg Theora. Browsers like Safari, Chrome and other browsers will support H. 264 including the internet Explorer 9. On the other hand Mozilla, FireFox supports Ogg Theiora.
Licensing concerns relating to H 264 has been cited by Mozilla as a justification for going with the free Ogg Theora. MPEG-LA, the group that oversees the H 264 says the licensing fee won’t be changed.
Meanwhile questions have been raised on the quality of Ogg Theora with at least one comparison showing that using H264 might result in higher quality of streaming video.
A MacRumors report states that, "it is unknown at this time whether Apple will support WebM in its Safari browser, although it appears likely it will given the strength behind the new format." Me, I'm a big fan of HTML5 and what it'll let Web designers do, so I'm hopeful that WebM will help HTML5 become more mainstream.
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