HTML5 Is Coming: Ignore It at Your Own Peril - Jim Louderback - MediaBizBloggers

A few years ago most media execs could safely ignore technology The biggest changes for television amp8211 color cablesat and the remote control amp8211 all emerged a long time ago Even HD was a well understood if slow moving technology easy to understand and plan for with low tech options like cropping tape on the camera viewfinder and airbrushed makeup Magazine and newspaper execs could safely leave those printing binding and mailing breakthroughs to the circulation wonks in the basementNot anymore If you39re not up on the latest technological advances on the Internet you39re likely to end up behind before you can catch your breath And one of the most important advances in years HTML5 is about to rock your worldI can see you tuning out already A geeky post about bits and bytes Count me out Abandon at your peril though because if you aren39t planning for this next wave you39ll quickly fall behind That39s because Google is going to use it as a weapon to attack both Microsoft and Adobe amp8211 and to build an unassailable position as the dominant Web media platform of the next decadeLet39s first set the stage for why HTML5 is so important by talking Web browsers A little more than ten years ago the lowly Web browser used to be just for viewing text and images But then a number of new technologies with names like Java and AJAX enabled a new type of Web site amp8211 one that worked more like Microsoft Office and less like a looseleaf binder These browser extensions are responsible for most of the rich Web sites we use todayAdobe39s Flash amp8211 another browser extension amp8211 enabled the animation and video rich sites we enjoy today Most online video today and most games too use Flash And Flash is so ubiquitous that most media companies don39t even need to worry about it amp8211 if you want video on your website you build or buy a flash player embed it into the Web code aka the HTML and go back to making great content Flash is the color television of the WebBut Flash has its problems As a separate singlevendor solution it can be slow buggy hard to modify and concentrates a lot of power into one company39s hands It also means extra work for media companies because more and more nonPC Internetconnected devices don39t support Flash the iPhone Xbox 360 and most settop boxes come to mind That means more effort is needed to deliver your media everywhere your audience wants it Here at Revision3 we encode our popular shows in 7 different versions to enable the anytime anywhere any device any service viewing our audience demandsSure other media technologies are available including Microsoft39s Silverlight and Move Networks But they have all the drawbacks of Flash with none of the relative ubiquityWhy do we even have Flash Silverlight Move and others Because today39s HTML amp8211 the set of commands that allow a Website to load and display a page inside a browser doesn39t support audio or video That39s right they have no innate understanding of how to find grab display and control streaming media amp8211 or even animationHTML 5 though does When HTML 5 has been approved and becomes the de facto standard for the Web we won39t need proprietary players to let our audience interact with our media It will just be a standard part of any Web page like text and images are today That39s a radical change very much like the analog to digital transition terrestrial broadcasters just went throughThe rub though as with most technology is adoption None of today39s popular browsers fully support this new standard amp8211 because it hasn39t been ratified yet Microsoft as usual pays lip service to the new standards as it pushes Silverlight amp8211 and they control the lion39s share of the browser market today with their Internet ExplorerEven if every browser maker embraced HTML 5 fully it would still be years and years before most devices supported it amp8211 that39s because many users just don39t update their browsers Heck Internet Explorer 6 came out eight years ago and it39s still got a 27 market share according to data from Net Applications Even worse the HTML 5 working group can39t decide on which video encoding mechanism aka the codec to standardize on That means even more uncertainty and confusion as HTML 5 rolls outquotSo nothing39s going to change quicklyquot I can see you thinking quotSo why am I wasting my time reading thisquot Because of GoogleGoogle is one of the biggest proponents of HTML 5 It will help their application division enabling better support for Gmail Google Apps and Wave But it39ll really help their core search business That39s because the Google programs that crawl and index every Web page can39t understand Flash Google is blinded by Flash So it39s in their best interests for everyone to move to HTML5 as soon as possible amp8211 preferably using the company39s Chrome browser operating system or Android phone And the company has a pretty compelling weapon to get your viewers and readers to switch It39s called YouTubeLet39s face it amp8211 YouTube owns video on the Internet Everything else is just noise And today YouTube delivers its video via Flash But you can bet that an HTML5 amp8211 and Flashfree amp8211 version of the site is currently under development Once the standard is set and Firefox and Chrome support HTML 5 we39ll see a new much richer HTML 5 version of YouTube debut The codec question too will evaporate as Google rolls out free versions of the ON2 technology it acquired earlier this yearYouTube is the 5000 pound gorilla of Web video It will lead and the rest of the Web world will be compelled to follow It won39t be eight years this time By 2011 HTML 5 will be a major perhaps even dominating force on the Internet And if you39re not ready you might find yourself shooting in black and white when everyone else amp8211 and definitely GoogleYouTube are in living colorJim Louderback joined Revision3 as the CEO in July 2007 He can be reached at jimrevision3comRead all 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HTML5 Is Coming: Ignore It at Your Own Peril - Jim Louderback - MediaBizBloggers

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