Google has bought On2 Technologies, owner of VP6 video code, in a stock-for-stock transaction worth $106.5 million. Analysts think that Google is preparing to make a video infrastructure play.
In the last two years, the online video industry has largely chosen H.264 as VP6 successor. However, VP6 is already installed on computers everywhere, and now with Google managing its licensing –everybody, including Adobe, is paying licensing fees to On2-, the format could come back into power, maybe at no cost.
Another contender, the open-source video compression format of choice, OGG Theora, which is being pushed by Mozilla, has not won industry confidence.
It means that Google, with its Chrome browser, and soon OS, can play a big role. Google is one of the leaders of the new HTML 5 standard, which handles video natively and could eliminate the need for Flash and Silverlight-type plug-ins.
In terms of browser landscape, Microsoft has Internet Explorer and its video technology in Silverlight. Apple has Safari and QuickTime. Google, which already runs the biggest video site on the web in YouTube, has a relationship with Mozilla, and people speculated that could build Theora support into its Chrome browser.
With On2 acquisition, Google shows up who is theal driver on the Internet.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if Google open-sources On2 itself. By pushing ON2’s code Google can shape the future of web video.
YouTube for Kids
ZuiTube.com is a new kid-friendly video destination site, whose 60,000 clips have been approved for child viewing by a network of 200 parents and teachers.
ZuiTube monitors, search and play activity through its service to determine what kids are interested in, and they match them with what is appropriate.
The videos are pulled from YouTube using its API. It means that ZuiTube is dependent on YouTube. If a video gets taken from there, Kidzui no longer has access to it.
YouTube’s ‘Promoted Videos’ Will Appear on Partner Watch Pages
YouTube announces that they will include videos from paying advertisers, and will share revenue from the ads with the video page’s content owner, as Google does with AdSense.
Those promoted videos will only be shown on pages where the site has a revenue sharing partnership with the content producer. YouTube says views of partner videos have tripled in the last year, and it is no monetizing hundreds of millions of video views per week.
Previously, Promoted Videos only appeared next to search results and occasionally on the YouTube homepage.