Google's H.264 Fumble -- Exhibit A for Using Sorenson Squeeze to Pick Up the Ball -- Blatant Plug, Yes, But It's the Truth

Google and Apple's ongoing battle ain't gonna stop anytime soon. And, as I wrote yesterday (as did everyone and his brother and sister in the tech world), Google's latest salvo is to rip H.264 HTML5 support out of its Chrome browser in favor of its own WebM "gift to the world" format which uses the On2 VP8 video codec it purchased long ago. Google gave many justifications for doing this, but many don't buy them. Here is TechCrunch's take on that subject in a scathing rebuke.

This is all well and good -- but this ain't just ivory tower type stuff. These decisions -- that seemingly come out of the blue -- have major real world impacts across the online video and mobile eco-systems. They impact anyone and everyone that wants to deliver high quality video across every platform and every device (the numbers of which are only multiplying as we saw at CES -- as an example, over 100 tablets were introduced at CES and that's just one category of products).

And, that means that anyone who wants to deliver online and mobile video must consider these kinds of ongoing disruptions and developments (never ending codec wars, new devices, etc.) when they consider their video encoding and transcoding solutions. Remember, ALL video must be encoded/transcoded for online and mobile video -- all video. And, it really doesn't matter why Google does this or Apple does that. You can't solve that problem. But, you need to solve the basic problem of delivering high quality video across all platforms and devices in this world of ever-increasing complexity where such strategic moves by the giants are not the exception -- they are the norm.

But, encoding and transcoding are hard, hard, stuff to get right. And, this process and your decisions in this regard are getting evermore complex as a result of these types of major market disruptions. As "pluggy" as this sounds, it really is critical to have a trusted encoding solutions provider to get you everything you need because encoding and transcoding are not your core competencies -- but they are for some. We at Sorenson Media like to think that we are THAT trusted source for one-stop encoding/transcoding shopping -- with our full portfolio of award-winning solutions including Squeeze Server (for high volume enterprise transcoding), Squeeze Solutions Pack (high volume transcoding with accelerated file upload and virtual server management), Squeeze Desktop (the gold standard professional video application), and related components including our 360 online video platform.

We believe in codec neutrality! We are Swiss! We don't favor one codec (H.264, WebM, etc.) over others -- we support them all! Heck, we have our own video codecs (Spark, the most ubiquitous codec in the world, and SV3), but they are just one among scores of others we support. In fact, we are known for supporting the widest array of codecs both on the input and output sides of the equation.

This ever-growing complexity in the online and mobile video worlds makes it increasingly critical for enterprises and individuals to find the right trusted encoding/transcoding solution. Candidly, it builds our case as a company and for our solutions. Think of it this way - we do the thinking about all of this frequently maddening stuff so that you don't have to -- and so that you can focus on your core competency -- i.e., building your business. Is this good for us, yes, of course. But, it can only be good for us if we are doing our job for you.