Microsoft Edge will soon support Google's open-source video codec VP9
Microsoft today announced that its newly released Edge browser will be getting support for VP9, an open-source video codec that Google initially developed, in upcoming Windows Insider preview builds of Windows 10.
Context & Ripple Effects
This lands three months after Microsoft gave its Windows 10 browser the Edge brand, when the company was still positioning a from-scratch engine against Chrome. Adopting VP9 — a codec Google developed — is an early concession that web-video compatibility matters more than engine purity.
Seen against later coverage, the move reads as the first step in a longer drift toward Google's stack: by December 2018 Microsoft announced it would rebuild Edge on Chromium outright, swapping EdgeHTML and Chakra for Blink and V8 and bringing Chrome extensions along.
First-order effects
- Windows Insider testers get VP9 playback natively in Edge, closing a codec gap against Chrome without plugins or workarounds.
Second-order effects
- Codec parity removes one of the last technical reasons for sites using Google's open-source video format to treat Edge as a second-class target.
Third-order effects
- Incremental adoption of Google-originated standards proved to be the on-ramp to the full Chromium rebuild — Edge's independent-engine era ending in a wholesale embrace of Blink, V8, and Chrome extensions.
The trend: Browser engines are converging on Google's open-source foundations, with Microsoft moving from selective standard adoption to building Edge on Chromium itself.