Google announced via their Chromium Blog today that the Chrome browser will soon stop supporting the H.264 video codec in favor of open solutions. As a result, some websites will need to be updated for Chrome compatibility. Specifically, the < video > tag support in Chrome for HTML5 will work with the video codecs WebM (VP8) and Theora. Google also said they are open to additional support of high-quality open codecs for the future. The changes will take place sometime over the next few months. No official date was given.

As Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch pointed out, Chrome still supports Flash, which works with H.264 video. However, Adobe is a WebM partner and will support VP8. Besides that, Adobe’s Flash has become a point of contention in a growing battle between Apple and Google. Apple doesn’t want Flash on any iOS devices, and now Google rejects Apple’s codec of choice in their browser and Chrome OS. It’s a battle for customers and the battleground is the websites we visit.

Via the Chromium Blog