Google announced it'll continue not being evil by giving away a great video format to the world. Google bought a company called On2 earlier this year, whose claim to fame was its VP8 video codec. So now, Google wants to let everyone in the world use that without paying anything.

Google's wrapped up its newly acquired VP8 video with the free Ogg Vorbis audio, and put it into a container it'll call WebM, based on the pirate's favorite video, Matroska. Best of all, and it's now royalty-free, unlike the most popular web video format now, known as H.264, which isn't.

While it sounds like a lot of technical gobbledygook, this could be a game-changer. It could finally put all this squabbling about Web video standards to rest. Immediately, Firefox and Chrome browsers, and Adobe Flash will adopt the format, with Opera on the way (we're looking at you, Internet Explorer). And since YouTube is owned by Google, its videos will be offered as WebM, too. Big hardware names are on board, such as AMD, NVIDIA, Logitech, and many more. Notable exceptions: Apple and Intel.

Web M Project, via Engadget and Fast Company