Video – thirty years of breaking the web's assumptions
The article discusses the evolution of video on the web over the past thirty years. It highlights the transition from early browser plugins like RealPlayer and QuickTime to the more versatile Macromedia Flash. Flash revolutionized web video by allowing interactive experiences and supporting efficient streaming protocols.
- ▪Early web video relied on plugins that operated independently of the browser.
- ▪Macromedia Flash became a key player in web video by enabling interactive experiences and efficient streaming.
- ▪The introduction of the VP6 codec in Flash coincided with the launch of YouTube, significantly impacting web video.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
← All postsVideo — thirty years of breaking the web's assumptionsMay 28, 2026·webrtc · flash · history · streaming · protocols · udpFor a long time, video on the web didn’t really have anything to do with the web itself. The O.G. solutions available around the turn of the millennium were the RealPlayer and QuickTime plugins, both of which are largely best forgotten to avoid triggering any old traumas. (If you remember how the <embed> and <object> tags worked, then you are officially old, congratulations — may your knees outlive the QuickTime brand which still lingers as a zombie in the macOS video player app.) Browser plugins were effectively independent applications that could render into a frame within a web page.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Talking.
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