Google has released the source code for a technology that it hopes developers will use to embed real-time video and voice chat functionality in their Web applications.
Google acquired the technology, called WebRTC (Web Real Time Communication), when it purchased VoIP (Voice over IP) software developer Global IP Solutions in 2010, for approximately $68.2 million. The company said it would open source the technology early last month.
WebRTC is a set of voice and video signal processing technologies, which can be accessed by developers through HTML tags and JavaScript APIs (application programming interfaces).
Today, Internet audio and video chat services from companies such as Skype are chiefly proprietary, accessible through plug-ins and client downloads. Last month, Microsoft agreed to purchase Skype for $8.5 billion.
Google wants third-party developers to use the voice and video engines to create chat applications that can be run directly from within a browser. Global IP Solutions has built WebRTC-based mobile clients for Android, Windows Mobile and the iPhone. Ericsson Labs built a videoconference prototype with the technology as well.
Google is working with other browser developers, such as Mozilla and Opera, in hopes they will support the technology in their browsers. The company is also participating in W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) and IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) projects for creating real-time communication Web standards. WebRTC is based on the W3C's Web Applications 1.0 API.
No comments:
Post a Comment