The Google I/O conference, held May 27-28 2009 in San Francisco, showed off a very cool product called Google Wave. It's what email would be if it were invented today.
Through the power of HTML5 and XMPP they were able to create a real-time communication and collaboration tool that transcends previous browser capabilities. This latest innovation is the brainchild of the Sydney-based brothers who also developed Google Maps.
This is truly showing where the web is heading and it is very exciting. It’s interesting to note that Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8 and possibly 9 won't ever work with Wave because of Microsoft's reluctance to implement any new specs (they took 10 years to fully implement a final specification of CSS 2.1 which has been signed off since 1998!)
Another interesting product Google showed off is Youtube using HTML5 tags. Specifically, the <video> tag for embedding video formats without the need for any plugins. The <video> tag is supported in Safari 3+, Firefox 3.5+, Chrome 3.0 beta+ and Opera 9.62 experimental build (not in current stable release).
Unfortunately the browser vendors have not been able to agree on which format will be supported for HTML5 videos. Originally, the draft specification proposed that browsers must support the open format Ogg Theora. Being open format means it won’t have potential issues with patents down the track, unlike the other competing format H.264, the version used in the YouTube demo.
Daily motion has collaborated with Mozilla in bringing HTML5 streaming video that will work in Firefox 3.5.
Unless the browser vendors come to an agreement on a standard format to use across the board, the <video> tag is already in trouble.