Chrome Plug-in Promotes Video Standard

Microsoft has announced the release of a Google Chrome Extension to enable the playback of H.264-encoded video content in Google’s Chrome browser on Windows 7. H.264 is an International Telecommunications Union standard that was created to enable playback of good-quality video at low bit rates; it is widely used for portable music players and other mobile devices, but it could play a greater role on the Web in the future. By building the Chrome plug-in and a similar one for the Mozilla Firefox browser, Microsoft boosts H.264, in which it has a stake, against the competing WebM standard favored by Google.

The Rise of H.264

Currently, most video content on the Web plays in a browser plug-in—typically either Adobe Flash or Microsoft Silverlight. However, HTML5, a new version of the markup language used to define Web pages, provides for more dynamic content. That includes video playback directly in the Web browser without a plug-in, using the <video> HTML tag. Although HTML5 is not yet complete, browser vendors have had to choose a video technology to use for playback within the browser.