Google gobbles up ON2
p2pnet news view Advertising | P2P:- Google is continuing its long-term plan to build an unbreakable lock on online video.
The giant online (for the moment) advertising company, “recently gobbled up ON2 Technologies who create high-quality video compression technology,” says ReelSEO, continuing:
“What`s that mean for the video web? One can never be certain, can one?”
On2`s technology powers client online and desktop apps including Adobe, Skype, Nokia, Infineon, Sun Microsystems, Mediatek, Sony, Brightcove, and Move Networks, says the post.
“That`s a pretty big list of heavy hitters,” it says. Google has agreeds to purchase On2 for about $106.5 million, not too shabby to say the least.”
But, “the regulatory folks have their noses in it and have to vet the whole deal,” the story notes.
On2’s earlier VP3.2 is the basis for Ogg Theora and, “some believe by purchasing On2, Google is likely looking to take their much more advanced VP7 and VP8 codecs open source and possibly license-free,” says Zatz Not Funny!
That’d, “provide HTML 5 with very advanced video technology for free, and would create serious competition for other current codecs and/or platforms such as h.264, Flash, Silverlight, etc., while at the same time giving Google another point of real strength in future internet developments,” it says.
But, “Open source means different things to different people,” says CNet News.
“It can be a software development methodology, a distribution technique, or a marketing gimmick.”
But, “Could it also be a way to minimize patent infringement damages?” – it asks.
After all, Google, “contributes to open source for a variety of reasons, not the least reason being that it recognizes open source is an efficient way to create community around its products,” says the story, adding:
“But perhaps Google has this more subtle, and sophisticated, reason as well?
“Brilliant.”
Stay tuned.
ReelSEO – Google Gets ON2 Video Compression, August 6, 2009
Zatz Not Funny! – Ramifications of Google`s On2 Acquisition, August 6, 2009
CNet News – Is Google’s open-source advocacy a patent-busting scheme?, August 6, 2009
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August 8th, 2009 at 3:09 am
On the other hand, keep in mind that Flash’s un-indexable nature is a threat to their entire business model (something they drew attention to by focusing on Chrome’s high-performance JS engine), so stopping it from being “the ubiquitous alternative for rich content” could be their main goal here.
To do that, they need to make Flash’s competitive advantages ubiquitous:
- A fast JS engine and HTML renderer in every browser (Chrome and its competitive pressure)
- Efficient video compression (On2 Acquisition)
- In-browser 3D (O3D)