According to the rumor mill, Google is planning to open source the VP8 video codec that powers YouTube.
The Inquirer’s Nick Farrell has the skinny.
“Apparently the cunning plan is to work with the Mozilla Foundation to support the newly open codec,” Farrell reported today. “The code will also find its way into the Chrome browser. It’s not clear whether it will be supported in Internet Explorer or Safari, though.”
Google has not yet announced that they are going to open source the VP8 codec, but Farrell said they will do so next month.
This move will certainly rejigger the battle lines in the video codec war.
“Some companies are throwing support behind the open source Ogg Theora and others think that H.264 is the future of web video,” Farrell said. “While Youtube, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 and Apple support H.264, Mozilla has refused to support H.264 due to potential licensing issues.”
The Free Software Foundation supports this move by Google.
