Microsoft Picks Another Web Standards Fight 211
mikejuk writes "WebRTC is a way to allow browsers to get in touch with one another using audio or video data without the help of a server. Google has been something of a pioneer in this area, and submitted a suggested technology for the standard. Mozilla has gone along with it, making it all look good. Microsoft, on the other hand, just seemed to be standing on the sidelines, watching what was happening. However, Microsoft now has a product that needs something like WebRTC; namely, Skype. It has been working on a web-based version of Skype and this has focused the collective mind on the problems of browser-to-browser communication. It now agrees that a standard is needed, just not the one Google and Mozilla are behind. Microsoft has submitted its own proposals for CU-RTC-Web or Customizable, Ubiquitous Real Time Communication over the Web, to the W3C. It may well be that Microsoft's alternative has features that make it superior, but a single standard is preferable to a better non-standard. Given Microsoft's need to make Skype work in the browser, it seems likely that, should its proposal not be accepted as the standard, it will press on regardless, thus splitting the development environment. Both Google and Mozilla have already put a lot of work into WebRTC, and there are partial implementations in Firefox, Chrome and Opera."
WebRTC? No thanks (Score:2, Funny)
From the description, ill pass. Just sounds like another way to eat our personal bandwidth and add more local attack vectors.
Re:Here's a thought (Score:4, Funny)
what about bob
Re:Some things never change.... (Score:5, Funny)
Indeed, witness Silverlight. I can't wait for the accepted standard to be implemented in browsers though, it opens a whole world of possibilities.
Re:That summary is awful (Score:5, Funny)
In reality, idealized design-by-commity just takes too long to be of any value
I think you have just described the W3C process perfectly!