Google open sources VP8 online video standard

Google has open sourced a new video standard to compete with existing closed formats

Google used the opening keynote of its I/O 2010 conference to announce the open sourcing of the VP8 video standard with the aim of making online video open to all developers.

The VP8 codec, which was acquired by Google last year when it bought On2 Technologies, will be released as part of the WebM project, which is supported by Mozilla and Opera.

Microsoft and Apple are still using the H.264 standard, which costs money and cannot be used in open-source projects.

"We think video should be a free and open option for all," said Sundar Pichai, Google's vice president of product marketing. "It's really important to have high quality and open video."

Google, Mozilla and Opera all support WebM in their browsers, and all video at 720p and larger on YouTube will be encoded in WebM by the end of the month. A WebM software developer kit has also been released.

Google has gained support from hardware manufacturers such as AMD, ARM and Qualcomm, as well as software vendors.

"We are really excited to see VP8," said Kevin Lynch, chief technology officer at Adobe. "We will distribute VP8 to over a billion people in the first year via Flash. We are also working with Google on a bunch of devices with Flash."

Lynch's comments add fuel to rumours that Google and Adobe are working on a new mobile platform to compete with Apple.