Seems like Microsoft doesn’t want to mess up on anything with IE9 by making it as much compliant with the web standards. After CSS3 and HTML5, it’s VP8 to get Microsoft’s support. And this really matters because Internet Explorer has a significant user base and IE9 is going to be huge. For those who don’t know, VP8 is a highly efficient video compression technology, developed by On2 Technologies (now owned by Google).

WindowsTeamBlog confirmed today that IE9 will support VP8 video along with H.264. It read,

…we want to be clear about our intent to support the same markup in the open and interoperable web. We are strongly committed to making sure that in IE9 you can safely view all types of content in all widely used formats. When it comes to video and HTML5, we’re all in. In its HTML5 support, IE9 will support playback of H.264 video as well as VP8 video when the user has installed a VP8 codec on Windows.

Do notice the clause- ‘when the user has installed VP8 codec’. This means that VP8 support will not be out-of-the-box. However, what matters is the support for an evolving web technology. It surely goes without saying that IE9 will hence support WebM. For WebM, this is the time to rejoice as it has two giants, Google and Microsoft, on it’s side. We have covered a post on WebM where you can also find the download links to the nightly builds of major browsers supporting WebM.