WebRTC is a free, open project that enables web browsers with Real-Time Communications (RTC) capabilities via simple Javascript APIs. The WebRTC components have been optimized to best serve this purpose.

Our mission: To enable rich, high quality, RTC applications to be developed in the browser via simple Javascript APIs and HTML5.

In plain English, the completely open source technology allows programmers to build powerful, browser-based, audio and video chat applications using only Javascript - no plugins required.  If you're a user of Google+ Hangouts, then you've already seen some of the possibilities.  The W3C draft isn't complete, but the new standard is supported by (almost) every major browser maker including Google, Mozilla, Microsoft and Opera.  Unsurprisingly, Apple hasn't thrown their weight behind the initiative.

The standard has been discussed for some time, but the I/O session, delivered by Google's WebRTC Tech Lead, Justin Uberti, featured several noteworthy milestones and demonstrations:

• Using Javascript, the browser is able to access device webcams and microphones.
• Canvas and WebGL can be used to create powerful video effects and face detection apps.
• The browser can make video calls to mobile apps that use RTC.
• Chrome, Firefox and Opera browsers will support RTC by the end of 2012.
• Internet Explorer to support RTC via Chrome Frame.
• RTC uses license free codecs for video (VP8) and audio (G.711 and iSAC).
• During the Q&A session, Mr. Uberti confirmed that screen-sharing will be available in a future release.

Where do I sign up?  Video applications that currently require significant programming knowledge can now be built by someone with much less coding skills.  The ease of  use alone will pique the interest of thousands of web developers. Advanced coders need not worry as a native C++ API exists.

It feels like a long time since I've been excited to develop a browser-based application, but Google is doing  just that.   The past few years were dominated by Android and iOS apps.  The wide adoption of WebRTC within all major browsers could turn that around.  It blurs the line between browser and native apps with the added benefit of being a Web standard.

From a business perspective, I think Google realizes the benefits here.  This technology is disruptive to the Web conferencing space and has the bonus effect of pushing WebM usage (VP8 is the video codec within that container format).  I believe it will take a sea change to get video content creators to stop using the ubiquitous H.264 codec, but WebRTC could be the catalyst for a migration to WebM/VP8.

There are a number of concerns I still have about the technology, including peer-to-peer reliability and the speed in which browser makers will actually include RTC support.  Microsoft, in particular, is worrisome because they are notoriously slow at forcing upgrades from older versions of Internet Explorer and getting enterprise users to install Chrome Frame can be a stretch.  However, last week several media outlets noticed recent Microsoft job postings that hint at Skype integrating WebRTC into a future release.  Now it gets interesting...

If you want to see some of the technology in action, I recommend downloading Google Chrome Canary.  Canary is Google's "at-your-own-risk" version of Chrome that has all the latest and greatest Dev features enabled.  As Google notes, the browser is designed for developers, so no complaining if it crashes!  From there, visit the demo section of the WebRTC project site.

But in doing so, we’ve seen a significant blurring of the lines between what a desktop application is and what a Web application is. It’s hard enough for some developers to distinguish a difference anymore. But for brand owners who look to extend interactivity to the desktop and beyond, the confusion could be crippling. While the idea of a RIA has been around for quite some time, the way users think about them is clearly beginning to change.

With the help of some big players in the technology world, namely Google, Microsoft and Adobe, those distinctions are all but disappearing.

Google is one of the largest players in the RIA space. Through both innovation and acquisition, they now own many of the most successful consumer oriented Web based applications. From Google Docs which is providing a viable alternative to desktop office suites, to Google Calendar and the ubiquitous Gmail, Google created a formidable library of software. But there are still those users - and I count myself among them - who don't entirely feel comfortable switching from software they control to software someone else does.

I believe products like Google Chrome are trying to address this.

As a browser, Google Chrome offers a few pieces of helpful functionality not seen in other browsers, but the most significant feature, is the "Application Shortcuts." This feature allows an end user to create a shortcut to any Web based application and save it to their desktop, start menu and Quick Launch bar (see video demo). Rather than open the application in the standard browser window, it opens without the normal set of browser toolbars and menus, making the Web application feel like a desktop application.

This is exactly this perception shift that is driving Google's entry into the browser market.

On the other hand, Microsoft seems to be taking a different approach. As a whole, Microsoft is strongly rooted in the desktop with a huge majority of users running one of their Windows operating systems. But this is not the whole story. At PDC 2008, Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference, the company announced a number of Software + Service initiatives. While some of these, like Windows Azure the new "cloud-based" operating system, are firmly fixed in the enterprise server space, other announcements focus clearly on the consumer In particular, Office 14 will feature a Web based version known as Office Web. This offers consumers with a user experience that is comparable to the desktop version and certainly rivaling the Google Docs competition.

Microsoft has also made a huge investment in the Web as a platform with the introduction of Silverlight as a RIA runtime. Silverlight offers developers a really great toolset for building Web based applications, but most importantly, it allows developers who are familiar with Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), (their desktop UI framework) to leverage most of that knowledge online. Software + Services as well as Silverlight will be the power behind Office Web and any number of as yet unannounced applications.

Finally, there’s Adobe. A veteran front runner in developing tools for Web based applications (with its Flash and Flex development environments and the Flash runtime) the competition from Microsoft's Silverlight has only forced them to improve their game. The recently released Flash 10 runtime is leaps and bounds above what they were developing two years ago and they have certainly renewed their commitment to the RIA. But they are not stopping there. Adobe released also the AIR runtime in February of this year which allows Flash/Flex developers to bring their applications to the desktop and taking advantage of all the benefits that provides.

The examples given above are just a small sampling of the changes coming from those three companies as well as all the other players out there. I think we'll be seeing fewer and fewer distinctions between what we do on the Web and what we do on the desktop. For brands, that means more and more connections and interactions with what were once two separate worlds.