X Nations - Google Joins In The Open Media Movement

I was scanning through the articles of the day and I saw this one that almost made me blow coffee in mid-air. One wouldn't associate big Internet company Google with the Open Source movement. Hell, I wouldn't even think that they'd be strung together in one sentence. But surprise surprise, Google has gotten into the action.

Why do I have a feeling that Google is doing this not for sheer support of free media but a bridge to capitalize it on their Google TV project. And more significantly, it's ironic for them to be in this situation given that they aren't exactly pro-Open Media with their policies against porn and other adult-oriented content.

Let's see how this turns out for them.

Quote:

LOS ANGELES — Google has announced the widely anticipated release of its VP8 video codec and launch of the WebM open web media project.

In a move that is earning praise from the Open Source community, Google has joined forces with a variety of industry leaders to redefine video on the web — but not everyone is wildly enthusiastic about the prospects — and industry operators are now left to ask, "what real impact will the move have on adult?"

"A key factor in the web's success is that its core technologies such as HTML, HTTP, TCP/IP, etc. are open and freely implementable," Jeremy Doig, Google's engineering director of video, wrote. "Though video is also now core to the web experience, there is unfortunately no open and free video format that is on par with the leading commercial choices

Read the entire article here.

:knight: