What ever happened with that company with the proprietary video codecs that Google bought? There were rumors that Google was going to adapt it and release it as a better open standard than HTML5
Rumors are that Google is going to release VP8 as fully free codec to resolve <video>-tag codec wars. It supposedly should be comparable to h264 in image quality. But Flash is much more than just video.
But video is what makes Flash considered 'necessary' for most consumers. The two are almost synonymous so if Google goes through with it, it will be the beginning of the end for Flash.
Ah, but why then was Flash at the same kind of penetration #s prior to Flash supporting video (Flash 6)? Also, as I mentioned in my post not all video is meant to be in a little rectangle on the page.
> but why then was Flash at the same kind of penetration #s prior to Flash supporting video (Flash 6)?
Back then, it was animation / interaction. Flash took advantage of a lack of standards across browsers as people were afraid to use javascript extensively. That time has passed.
Right now, Flash lives because of video. The animation necessity has mostly been replaced.
Assuming Google releases VP8, then your only argument left is that either:
1) Flash does video better (by a little)
2) Flash will find the next big thing to keep it alive.
I do not find (1) a compelling argument to use Flash for video on most sites. In fact, the irony is that Flash may be kept alive for backwards browser compatibility.
Until I know what (2) is - concrete examples please - I'm not willing to put any confidence just b/c Flash prevailed in the past. It is too small a sample size to put so much confidence in.
