4 Video and Audio
The introduction of YouTube was a quantum leap for displaying videos online.
Before the video platform came along, it was practically impossible for computer
novices to make a video file available to others via the Internet: The files were
usually too big to send via e-mail, and if they did arrive, the likelihood was great
that they could not be played on the recipient’s computer.
YouTube on the other hand offers online storage, allowing you to save the video
files. It also converts the different video formats, so they can be played with the
Adobe Flash Player.
Adobe supports Flash on many operating systems, offering plug-ins for all com-
mon browsers. Browser plug-ins are generally a great idea, but the communica-
tion between plug-in and browser can sometimes be difficult if not impossible.
Also, closed-source plug-ins, such as the Adobe Flash Player, are not very popular