Come on, I don't like Google and their control on the web. I go out of my way to avoid them. But we cannot blame them for providing us with a decent video codec

Come on, I don't like Google and their control on the web. I go out of my way to avoid them. But we cannot blame them for providing us with a decent video codec for which you don't need to pay patent fees. That was truly missing at the time. We had Theora but it is far from being as good. We needed a good open video format at the time. Apple is holding back on WebM support arguably because it has interests in forcing people to keep using patent-encumbered codecs from the MPEG-LA. They did nothing for pushing an open video format for the web, quite the contrary. They are still fighting against this. Apple is the one deserving to be pointed the finger at. Let's not divert the blame here. I hate Google but we should recognize the rare good things they occasionally do.