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Online video: Revolution, Evolution or Counter-Revolution?
Lots of news in online video world, some potentially significant.Â
And some we can only wait and see about.
Google Inc, Cisco Systems and News Corp are separately doing things that could mean sweeping changes in the way video is produced and consumed on the web.
Revolution?
Video compression technology can be interesting, really.
Most people forget how online video worked before YouTube popularized the embedded Flash video player. Remember the frustration of making sure you had the right video player to play this or that web video? It was YouTube that popularized giving people one-click access to videos.
On Wednesday, Google said it had agreed to acquire On2 Technologies, a maker of video compression technology, in a deal that could have sweeping effects for how video works on the web. The Internet search leader has a bland blog post about how it intends to use On2 to innovate in how video working on the Web, but it isn’t at all clear how far it Google is ready to go.
Evolution?
On Cisco System’s quarterly earnings conference call last night, 
CEO John Chambers gave out an interesting tidbit about the demand for consumer video cameras among corporate users.
Recall that in March, the world’s largest maker of network equipment for enterprises and telecom carriers, made an underappreciated acquisition of Pure Digital Technologies, the maker of the insanely easy-to-use Flip video camera line.Â
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