A Microsoft executive is jabbing at Google for planning to drop H.264 video support from its Chrome browser. Tim Sneath, who runs Windows and web evangelism at Microsoft, suggested Google is pushing its will on an industry that has already accepted H.264.
“The world’s ability to communicate with one another is a key factor in its rapid evolution and economic growth. The Esperanto language was invented last century as a politically neutral language that would foster peace and international understanding,” Sneath wrote on the MSDN blog. The blog’s mocking headline reads, An Open Letter from the President of the United States of Google.
Does Google Speak Klingon?
Writing as if from Google, Sneath pointed to the “benefits” of a constructed language, including a pure form of communication unsullied by cultural context, broad adoption by as many as 10,000 speakers, and independent dialects that not only bring additional choice for speakers but also foster healthy competition and innovation.
“Specifically, we are supporting the Esperanto and Klingon languages, and will consider adding support for other high-quality constructed languages in the future,” Sneath continued in his mockery of Google’s decision to reject what he sees as the equivalent of English in the browser video-support world. “Though English plays an important role in speech today, as our goal is to enable open innovation, its further use as a form of communication in this country will be prohibited and our resources directed toward languages that are untainted by real-world usage.”
What About ‘Don’t Be Evil?’
All mockery aside, Al Hilwa, an analyst at IDC, wants to know how Google can put the growth of an important software product at risk, fragment a standard, and upset developers and web-content owners. He doesn’t see this as living up to Google’s corporate motto of “don’t be evil.”
“With Chrome barely reaching 10 percent adoption, it…