A Channelweb article describes a new product from Microsoft called Silverlight which is a new web browser client for "advanced, browser-based video functionality."
Silverlight is said to be going head-to-head against Adobe's Flash, and is said to offer advanced functionality.
Netflix plans to adopt Silverlight as the foundation for its instant-viewing feature; a demo showed off high-quality streaming video overlaid with DVD-like menus and controls. A preview of forthcoming on-demand video functionality from MLB.com had attendees clamoring for the developing new features to hurry up and get finished.
As impressive as the demos were, the most remarkable aspect of the demo was Microsoft's commitment to make the platform "open" and "interoperable" with Mac support from the start:
While Microsoft is famed for its halfhearted or nonexistant support for running its software on rival platforms, the company vows Silverlight will be different: Version one is slated to run natively in Safari and Firefox as well as Internet Explorer (both version 6 and 7), and Opera support is in the works.
The demo stage reportedly had a number of Macs with a large portion of the demo devoted to their usage. Unfortunately, authoring support is only available on the Windows platform.
A beta version is available now.
