Google's YouTube unit has announced support for HTML5 videos on the YouTube platform.
Google's YouTube unit has announced support for
HTML5
videos on the YouTube platform.
In a Jan. 20 post on
Broadcasting
Ourselves, the official YouTube blog, the YouTube team announced the
introduction of an experimental version of an HTML5-supported player.
"Although limited to non-monetized, non-annotated videos, we're excited
about what HTML5 means to the overall YouTube experience," said Chris
Dale, a spokesman for YouTube, in a notice to the media.
According to the YouTube team blog:
"HTML5 is a new web standard that is gaining popularity rapidly and
adds many new features to your web experience. Most notably for YouTube users,
HTML5 includes support for video and audio playback. This means that users with
an HTML5 compatible browser, and support for the proper audio and video codecs
can watch a video without needing to download a browser plug-in."
Moreover, "Our support for HTML5 is an early experiment, and there are
some limitations," the YouTube team post said. "HTML5 on YouTube
doesn't support videos with ads, captions, or annotations and it requires a
browser that supports both the video tag and h.264 encoded video (currently
that means Chrome, Safari, and ChromeFrame on Internet Explorer). We will be
expanding the capabilities of the player in the future, so get ready for new
and improved versions in the months to come."
Dale said the YouTube team was scheduled to release the HTML5-supported
player as of 5 p.m. PT on Jan. 20 and
followed up his notice saying: "The engineering team is in the process of
pushing HTML5 support live, so it should be available in the next hour or
two."
Developers wishing to check out YouTube's HTML5 support can do so via
TestTube or this
demo site.
"We are very excited about HTML5 as an open standard and want to be
part of moving HTML5 forward on the web," the YouTube post said.
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