The Google Chrome team today announced that they will be dropping support for the H.264 video codec. Here’s what they have to say:
Though H.264 plays an important role in video, as our goal is to enable open innovation, support for the codec will be removed and our resources directed towards completely open codec technologies.
John Gruber asks the question I have: if openness is that important, why bundle Chrome with a proprietary Flash Player plugin?
Needless to say, the blog post is riddled with comments from those who oppose the decision. I added my short comment:
Nonsensical decision, guys.
I’ve also reinstated Safari as my default browser. My goal, too, is to “enable open innovation”.