Firefox 3.1 Will Use Open Source Video

According to InfoWorld, Firefox will release it’s next version (3.1) to include open source video code so users can embed video directly into a webpage with HTML. According to the article, “Firefox 3.1, the next major release due by early next year, will likely include support for a new HTML tag specifically for embedding video in Web pages. Firefox 3.1 will also support royalty-free video codec Ogg Theora.”

So what does this mean to the average browser user? Basically, when the new release of Firefox comes out sometime next year, users won’t have to download a plugin to play video and web developers/bloggers can just use a video HTML tag to embed video versus having to use javascript codes.

Currently, most web video is coded to be played by Apple’s Quicktime, Window’s Media Player and Adobe’s Flash. Although the plugins are free to everyone, some see this as potentially harmful since “locked content” in a particular format can be inaccessible by others who use other formats. Firefox will effectively streamline the delivery of video to its users.