HD rich media continues to bloom

Dailymotion announced today that they're starting to offer some of their content in sweet 720p HD video. As some have noted, it used to be that HD video was something no one really cared about. A lot of people, including YouTube, feel that HD video on the web isn't going to work and there won't be demand for it. Luckily companies like Vimeo and Dailymotion are proving that incorrect.

HD quality rich media on the web is a great thing and it's been one area where the Silverlight/Flash competition has been absolutely fantastic. It's also a testament to how quickly Adobe can roll out new features in the Flash player and let people take advantage of them. When you be sure that most of the web can view HD content, why not provide it? And that's the key. If you can lower the barrier to entry on HD rich media content, people will want it. It's going to become a bigger and bigger differentiator especially as the "couch" and the "computer chair" converge around online video. YouTube isn't in danger of going away, but I think they'll face pressure from a lot of sides to implement an HD solution. The sooner the better, especially if they can do it in a way that checks the bandwidth of the user and provides them the best content.