HTML5 May Just Have Won The Internet

Take a bit of notice and remember last spring when the talk of the town was the fact that Apple was pushing for HTML5 to be the standard for video on the web. Opposite what? Adobe's flash player. Where a year ago basically everything you saw as far as video was based in flash, now the standard has all but completely switched over to HTML5 – to a point.

Steve Jobs insisted on pushing the idea that online video meant having to be "HTML5 compatible. Video search engine MeFeedia took a look at some figures and says now, October 2010, that 54% of web video is available for playback in HTML5, that number being double what it was 5 months previous. That's a jump if ever have I seen one. MeFeedia also notes the following HTML5 holdouts, each of them still mainly flash-based:

Full episodes from the major TV Networks (including Hulu)

Most cable network content, particularly long-form video

Metacafe, MySpace Video, 5min

Live video sites such as Ustream and Justin.tv

International sites such as Tu.tv, Youku, and Sevenload

But take note: as evidenced by Hulu's "Hulu Plus" subscription (a pay service) that allows you to play their content using HTML on your iPad, the switchover to HTML5 completely is, as it often is, due to the fact that groups can continue to make money from your blistering need for functionality. As long as there is capitalism in the world, there'll still be people selling you VCR tapes and 8-track music at their garage sales. That's just the reality of the situation.

[Via The Wall Street Journal]