Chrome 23 beta adds more video support, features
The browser now includes track support for HTML5 video, as well as the MediaSource API.
Google's Chrome 23 is currently in beta. And the search giant yesterday offered up some new features that it says will make it easier for users to watch and access video.
To make good on that promise, the Chrome Beta comes with Track support in HTML5 videos. Track delivers subtitles, captions, and metadata for HTML5 video that can be viewed online. Developers can split videos up and add that data to clips with help from Track. However, users won't be able to see it all until the browser supports it. Chrome 23 will.
In addition, the Chrome 23 beta now supports the MediaSource application programming interface. With it, developers can adapt their video's quality based on the user's connection speeds and computer power. According to Google, the feature should reduce the amount of time it takes a video to buffer and should make for a more seamless viewing experience.
Google's Justin Uberti, a software engineer and trained video professional, said that Chrome will also come with a PeerConnection API for developers to build Web apps that support audio and video without the need for any other plugins. The API can be integrated into others, Google says, offering developers the ability to do a bit more within Chrome with their videos and apps.
Chrome has slowly but surely marched towards Internet Explorer at the top of the browser market. Over the summer, in fact, Google's browser owned 19 percent of the space, putting it just behind Firefox's 20 percent share. Internet Explorer owned 54 percent of the browser market.