Google Acquiring VP3 Developer On2 Technologies

R.Mo_Robert writes "BetaNews is reporting that Google is acquiring On2, the video codec company and original developers of the VP3 codec from which Theora is derived. The article suggests that this may mean Google is backing Ogg Theora as the HTML5 video standard, but this is likely not the case--with Theora already being open-source and On2 having disclaimed all rights and patents, there is no reason Google should have needed to do this to push Theora. You may recall from some time back that HTML5 no longer specifies which video codec(s) a browser should support due to there being, unfortunately, no suitable codec at this time. But Google (known for supporting H.264) practically owns Web video with YouTube in most people's minds, so their influence could really swing the future of HTML5 video either way. It remains to be seen whether Google's acquisition of On2 has any bearing on their plans for video on the Web."

Comments

Re:So what is the reason for this?

[Neon Spiral Injector]

No speculation, I submitted this story also, with a quote from Google's Blog:

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.

So it doesn't remain to be seen whether Google's acquisition of On2 has any bearing on their plans for video on the Web.

Re:Chrome, HTML5 disaster coming

[ianare]

No, apple has stated they have no intention of supporting Ogg.

FTFA

Apple is the only vendor that will not be supporting Ogg.

MS is out of the debate because they will not be supporting <video> at all.