Daily Motion and the html 5 <video> tag
As a developer I'm familiar with staying up for 30 hours at a time, I've been known to go up to a week without sleep or longer surviving on short naps. I recognize that sometimes things look like a good idea in that state and I try not to make those statements and realizations public until I have a chance to review it in the light of full consciousness.
Reading the latest post on the Daily Motion blog [link] I'm left with the tangible warm feeling you get when you see someone else in that state of mind. DailyMotion.com for anyone that doesn't know is an alternative to YouTube. Now don't get me wrong there's a steep drop off there but they are nevertheless an alternative.
The spec for the next version of HTML calls for a <video> tag. It means that instead of using flash to load video, or some other plugin like DivX, you can just embed the video on your website like an image and have it play natively in the browser. This requires that browsers implement the HTML 5 specification. There are a number of issues with adopting the <video> tag at this stage before any browsers even support it.
Let's face it, even though the majority of developers no longer user Internet Explorer, and ALL of them consider it a scornful misadventure in market dominance, the majority of users still use it. With Windows 7 potentially being functional (While screenshots and beta testers are raving about it, I'm still sceptical as Vista received the same acclaim pre-release), and while Google is positioning Chrome to take a hefty piece of the pie, albeit slowly, Microsoft will still hold a significant slice themselves. Microsoft has made clear their devotion to implementing HTML 5 standards in IE8 but they haven't even started those yet and IE8 is out and available for download. They will only implement it in one scenario. That is if they find a way for it to leverage their position in the online space(not likely). It's not likely both because the <video> tag will be open source it literally means implementing it in IE8,9, or 10 would be giving up their proprietary leverage, and they're clearly interested in proprietary leverage with Silverlight(Microsoft's version of Flash). Microsoft doesn't give a shit about open standards or advancing the web and they'll continue to exploit their market share for as long as possible if it means holding onto their dominance. After all, we are reaching a point where the average user can be satisfied with linux, and once that happens Microsoft will have to actually be better than the competition to remain a player in the online space. They are definitely not going to accelerate that process.
Also to be noted is the quality of video that can be played with the <video> tag. It's simple, at this stage, the quality and formats are complete and utter shit. Jittery low-fi shit. In an age of broadband where YouTube just added an HD button Daily Motion just made a move in favour of open source technology that hasn't been implemented anywhere except a few betas. Sure if they don't need to use flash they probably don't need to use FMS and can switch to lighter cheaper hardware. Going completely open source like that will save them a lot on proprietary software. It's insane to make the switch now. In the middle of what is likely or at least close to the climax of the browser wars the guys over at DailyMotion are all idealistic walking around with peace symbols around their necks claiming that they want to implement the constitution which is not even in it's first draft and there's 4 countries that appose that very constitution and they're all armed with a full nuclear arsenal.
And the same goes for the HTML spec for canvas. Both Microsoft and Adobe stand to lose if video and canvas are implemented in Internet Explorer, but even if it was implemented tomorrow, Adobe is leaps ahead of where the open source alternatives are especially with their desktop and server products AIR and FMS and the popular flv format.
The moral?
Make critical business and tech decisions after a full nights rest. DailyMotion... you can't be fucking serious...
