Video Chat, and WebRTC

You know, and I know, that Video Chat isn't taking the world over by storm, even though it is supposed to happen Any Day Now.  The lock-in factor is definitely a culprit - think of all the services out there, and how none of them inter-operate

• Skype
• GTalk
• Hangout
• Tango
• FaceTime
• TinyChat

oh, the list goes on.  And none of them work with each other.  Mind you, this is even before we get into Device issues (quick!  Can your Polycom work with eyeBeam?), not to mention the horror that is 'Standards' (For some fun bed-time reading, check this out!).

Enter WebRTC.  Its a simple standard that enables Javascript based RTC.  The API document may look complicated, but it really is not.  Much more importantly, it is simple, open, and did I mention, simple*?  

Serge LaChapelle of Marratech fame is now over at Google moving 'em into the WebRTC world **.  Expect to see the fruits of this work to show up in G+ Hangout, not to mention Gmail, Gtalk, etc. pretty darn soon.  

Mind you, this will almost certainly resolve the inter-operability issue (again, w/ the possible exception of Skype which has always marched to the beat of its own drum :-) ), and it will amost certainly not resolve the Why would I want to see you when I talk to you issue.  But that, as they say, is another story...

* Ok, maybe not so simple, but trust me, given the horror of trying to do any kind of video-chat service, it is about as easy as falling off a log.

** A little video from Serge talking about this