Google pulls H.264 codec support from Chrome

In a move that will be welcomed by many and cursed by just as many folks, Google has announced that it will be dropping support for the H.264 video codec in Chrome’s HTML5 component. Google’ already has its alternative WebM video-encoding technology and this move will be favored by folks who dream of basic web technologies being unencumbered by patent restrictions.

The H.264 video codec is favored by Microsoft and Apple, so Google isn’t necessarily making friends here, though the folks over at Mozilla seem to be pretty happy, according to tweets. With this move, Google has firmly swung its vote in the direction of WebM and snubbed H.264, though we’ll have to wait and see how this will affect things in the long run.