Google Abandons h.264 Codec Support in Chrome, Apple and Microsoft Still Onboard

From DailyTech: In a surprising move, Google has abandoned support for the h.264 video codec, used (among other codecs) to power HTML5 video in its Chrome browser. The company writes [blog]:

We expect even more rapid innovation in the web media platform in the coming year and are focusing our investments in those technologies that are developed and licensed based on open web principles. To that end, we are changing Chrome’s HTML5 support to make it consistent with the codecs already supported by the open Chromium project. Specifically, we are supporting the WebM (VP8) and Theora video codecs, and will consider adding support for other high-quality open codecs in the future. Though H.264 plays an important role in video, as our goal is to enable open innovation, support for the codec will be removed and our resources directed towards completely open codec technologies.

The move is extremely significant as it leaves Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 (test builds) and Apple's Safari 5 as the only browsers on the market that support the codec.

The debate over what codec should be used for HTML5 web video has been a contentious one and a partisan debate among browser makers who ultimately have to make the choice for their customers.

The group that licenses h.264, which Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs notably holds stock in, recently came out promising not to charge consumers or web developers to use its video standard for free web video. It does still plan to charge for paid video or internal websites. Advocates, though, argue that h.264 offers the best video quality.

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