Google has been pushing hard on making Chrome look unique from its rivals. More and more new feature have been added daily. Sometimes it’s hard to make out what’s new and what’s old! That’s where it became a strong leader in Browsers Wars.

Almost a year back, Google came up with a new framework called as WebRTC.

What is WebRTC?

WebRTC is an open framework for the web that enables Real Time Communications in the browser. It includes the fundamental building blocks for high quality communications on the web such as network, audio and video components used in voice and video chat applications.

These components, when implemented in a browser, can be accessed through a Javascript API, enabling developers to easily implement their own RTC web app.

Why should we use WebRTC?

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We think you’ll want to build your next video chat style application using WebRTC. Here’s why:

1. A key factor in the success of the Internet is that its core technologies such as HTML, HTTP, and TCP/IP are open and freely implementable. Currently, there is no free, high quality, complete solution available that enables communication in the browser. WebRTC is a package that enables this.
2. Builds on the strength of the web browser: WebRTC abstracts signaling by offering a signaling state machine that map directly to PeerConnection. Web developers can therefore choose the protocol of choice for their usage scenario (for example, but not limited to: SIP, XMPP/Jingle, etc…).

WebRTC – an Open Source Technology!

On May 3, 2011, Google announced WebRTC as an open technology for voice and video on the web. With WebRTC, we’d like to make the browser the home for innovation in real time communications.

Until now, real time communications required the use of proprietary signal processing technology that was mostly delivered through plug-ins and client downloads. With WebRTC, developers can create voice and video chat applications via simple HTML and JavaScript APIs.

WebRTC, a new feature of Chrome 18!

WebRTC is now integrated in the Chrome browser available on the dev channel. Even though WebRTC is still evolving, it is already receiving feedback from the standards process in W3C and IETF and there are already plenty of apps in development. For example, companies like Polycom, Vonage, Vehix.com, Firespotter, Siemens, Nimbuzz and PCCW are currently actively developing browser based solutions using WebRTC.

Chrome canary users can enjoy this feature by adding switch “–enable-media-stream”

Opera and Mozilla teams are already added as supporters of WebRTC! We can expect more innovations in the coming months by Chrome, Opera and Firefox development teams.

Watch out this space for more info. Share your thoughts on this latest technology. Thank you.