As someone already knows, Google launched the WebM project on 19th May 2010:

Google has released the On2 VP8 video codec as open source (royalty free, BSD-style), while also launching the WebM container format which combines a VP8 video stream with Vorbis audio. Support for WebM has been enabled on YouTube's HTML5 beta, and you can download patches against ffmpeg as well as DirectShow filters for Windows (Gstreamer plugins are labelled as "coming soon").

You can download patches to apply to ffmpeg, and Google has also made DirectShow filters available for Windows users. There's also an introduction to the WebM VP8 codec SDK, and of course you can get your hands on the code.

And Xiph.Org Announced Support for WebM Open Media Project yesterday:

Monty from Xiph.org Foundation, the people behind Theora and Vorbis, have announced their support for Google's WebM container format. "The Xiph.Org Foundation is pleased to announce its support of the WebM open media project as a project launch partner. As announced earlier today at the Google I/O Developer Conference, the WebM format combines the VP8 video codec, the Matroska container, and the Vorbis audio codec developed by Xiph into a high-quality, open, unencumbered format for video delivery on the Web. Xiph will continue to contribute to WebM as a whole and collaborate in its further development and deployment." Remember, people, without the hard work from the boys and girls at Xiph, Google would not have been able to do this.

The WebM blog
Planet Xiph

Great to finally see a mayor company pushing open formats. Maybe this will bring Vorbis to the masses. Finally.

Thoughts from an x264 developer: http://x264dev.multimedia.cx/?p=377

Thoughts from an x264 developer: http://x264dev.multimedia.cx/?p=377

Dhehe, funny ! Check this too: Jobs drops hint on Google open video codec

BTW, here are more interesting links:

• First Look: H.264 and VP8 Compared
• H.264 vs VP8: a video codec comparison
• An analysis of WebM and its patent risk
• Prediction methods used in H.264  and related formats (SV3,RV4,VP8)

thoughts
a. with vp8 the biggest problem seems to be lack of any standard, so how would one make GPU accelerated decoders?
b. forart: all this comps are dealing with mainconcept h.264 for no logical reason? (x264 seems to be miles ahead at this point in time)
c. i couldnt find a single mention of easy to use streaming with webM, which is another barrier for longtail, common providers.

Fast reply:

• Intel May Add Hardware Support for WebM to Atom CE4100
• As you can read in this article, VP8 is not (yet) competitive with h264 main and high profile (seems that this will be the next Theora action field), but don't forget that the target is the web (it's called WebM, isn't it ?), so: "My crystal ball prediction is that if/when H264 ever starts having royalties, that’s when the switch happens. Everything right now until then is just laying infrastructure (client support, tools, encoders, etc) until websites are motivated to switch."
• Well, seems that Flumotion already delivers WebM streams... (you do need enabled Firefox or Opera builds.

a,b later
c. i'am talking about dumping file to cheap web server and it streams, MS has proved that quite possible.

Thoughts from an x264 developer: http://x264dev.multimedia.cx/?p=377

More F.U.D being spread from people who don't want to see open-source software thrive regardless of their stupid technical opinion when have we seen that before? I am going to build the patch against FFMPEG in Linux here when I have some time to test it out.