Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Firefox and Chrome Can Talk To Each Other

Posted by Soulskill on from the playing-nice-with-others dept.

The Firefox and Chrome teams have announced that their respective browsers can now communicate with each other via WebRTC for the purpose of audio and video communication without needing a third-party plugin. WebRTC is a new set of technologies that brings clear crisp voice, sharp high-definition (HD) video and low-delay communication to the web browser. From the very beginning, this joint WebRTC effort was embraced by the open web community, including engineers from the Chrome and Firefox teams. The common goal was to help developers offer rich, secure communications, integrated directly into their web applications. In order to succeed, a web-based communications platform needs to work across browsers. Thanks to the work and participation of the W3C and IETF communities in developing the platform, Chrome and Firefox can now communicate by using standard technologies such as the Opus and VP8 codecs for audio and video, DTLS-SRTP for encryption, and ICE for networking. To try this yourself, you’ll need desktop Chrome 25 Beta and Firefox Nightly for Desktop. In Firefox, you'll need to go to about:config and set the media.peerconnection.enabled pref to "true." Then head over to the WebRTC demo site and start calling."

4 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. Question: by Blue+Stone · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So will webRTC kill Skype?

    (please say yes, please say yes...)

    --
    Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
  2. A browser is for browsing by futhermocker · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just as a car is for driving. You could try and make a car fly as well, but it will fly only for a few seconds before gravity kicks in.

    Same goes for software. Years of experience learned me to prevent this kind of 'additional functionality', also called "function creep". Next to that, I can think up tons of vulnerabilities, such as implanting 'bugs' on pages, analog to a hidden electret mic, or pre recorded spam calls.

    Note that I really support this type of innovation, but please, not in browsers.

    --
    KERNEL PANIC -SIGFAULT AT ADDRESS #51A54D07
    1. Re:A browser is for browsing by HaZardman27 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The reason this stuff is happening in browsers and the web is because that's where the companies who care about and support inter-operability are at. It's unfortunate that we need the browser as an additional software layer (and a big one at that) for making truly platform independent and accessible software, but it's just the state of things right now.

      --
      Apparently wizard is not a legitimate career path, so I chose programmer instead.
  3. Re:This Is A Big Step by LordLimecat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Firefox: ~44MB
    Chrome: ~96MB
    IE: ~20GB and counting