Although I'm speaking directly to Google's announcement that the VP8 Codec has been inducted into its WebM open media project, this is really just a curmudgeonly dismissal of what I see as yet another parade float in the procession of annoyances that occur solely as a result of someone trying to save money at the expense of the little people at the bottom of the pyramid, we the users. My background contributes to my perhaps biased view of something like V8. I worked for years in a small company as a "hands on all things" general IT guy. That led to the necessity to get the job done with as little involvement in emerging technologies as possible unless they really solved a pressing and immediate problem. Google certainly has done just that on many fronts, especially for the small business. Lately, however, Google seems to be diversifying beyond its current positions in search and cloud computing. Google, for the first time seems to be placing something, I'm not sure exactly what, a little ahead of innovation and customer experience.
Is V8 and WebM really anything more than the genre of a big company trying to give a competitive answer to an established product that nearly everyone uses? he V8 codec, touted in a recent ReelSEO article as a possible solution a number of overhead issues including playback on devices like those Atom based mini-PCs that I rarely see in use any more in my frequent incursions to Starbucks and other public hotspots, seems to be much akin to Microsoft's Silverlight. Microsoft's attempt to nudge-you-to-death toward installing the Silverlight plugin should you dare visit any MS site no matter how unrelated to visual content is not lost on my sensibilities about bloatware, and only reinforces my resolve to not install it.
The big takeaway is that WebM is a "good enough" codec and an answer (for vendors) to H.264, a codec which already seems to play nicely enough with most users.
I wonder if Google is making a new foray into something that wouldn't best be cast into the nearest Betamax bin.
I'm truly a fan of Google and cloud computing in general, but it really seems that Google is taking on a slightly defensive hue in its strategies lately. Wave, and more recently, Buzz come to mind as also-ran efforts undertaken too late in social networking. Not that Buzz doesn't perform, but Google makes itself look like the pesky little brother trying to hang out with the big kids.
I could actually be wrong about Buzz when all is said and done but more likely, Facebook will stay so far ahead by sheer volume that there will never be a real race.
Back on the topic at hand, how does V8 help us? Well, I don't think it does in any direct way. It helps vendors, so if Google could really capture the browser market with Chrome...
Meanwhile, as a user, I just say, "Let me focus on my work and stay out of my way!"
To be fair, I decided to have a peek at the example posted by ReelSEO but alas, the only thing to examine was a 404 page.
I don't really mind if Google wants to play around with another Codec, but I sure hope they don't start nagging us at every turn like Microsoft does in its unflagging effort to chip away at the Adobe Flash market share.
I'm running a business here, or at least, I'm attempting to in my somewhat ADHD fashion. I guess I'm just old school enough to want to use what works and what I'm familiar with. Maybe it's just that as someone who produces enough video content to care about such things, H.264 is my favorite Codec thus far and I can't help harbor suspicion that V8 will remain forever inferior but will be surreptitiously and endlessly promoted solely to save an aggregate "millions of dollars" in royalties paid by vendors, especially one vendor in particular.
Dave Keys, Orange County SEO
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