It's notable that Google is promoting HTML5 quite heavily but just acquired a product that is tied heavily to proprietary technology.
Edit: How feasible is it to build Picnik using HTML5 stuff (SVG, background image grinding, etc.)?
Edit: How feasible is it to build Picnik using HTML5 stuff (SVG, background image grinding, etc.)?
And, what chips has Google actually put on the table? One thing might be that they aren't putting out a set of Open Source but non-standard plugins for Chrome/Firefox/IE to replace Flash. Google is implicitly taking the risk that Adobe will implicitly own the web if more and more sites standardize on Flash-based stuff. Perhaps, since it's more likely that the world will rally around HTML5 than around Google's Flash competitor (or Silverlight), Google is actually adopting a least-risk strategy?
Also, for all we know, Google has a set of plugins waiting in the wings should HTML5 die on the vine. It was rumored that Microsoft had a version of Office for Linux ready to go should the desktop market tip so heavily out of its favor that it risked losing its Office semi-monopoly if it didn't support Linux.