The big story here is this introduces a new image file format without requiring you to upgrade a browser or download a plugin. Those aren't PNGs of representative images you're looking at - that's BPG decoding happening in your browser.
So we don't like HVEC due to patent worries? Fine, we can swap in another format and use the same technique.
We don't have an I-frame format for Daala that's finalized yet? Fine, we can use work-in-progress. The format does not need to be finalized. If you update it, you rebuild your images and bundle a new JavaScript decoder.
The ability to ship media along with a sandboxed, runnable decoder is awesome, and I'm surprised it hasn't caught on until now. I remember Google a while back implemented their own "video" codec in JavaScript using JPEGs and primitive inter-frame processing, exactly because there wasn't a universal video codec format they could use.
So we don't like HVEC due to patent worries? Fine, we can swap in another format and use the same technique.
We don't have an I-frame format for Daala that's finalized yet? Fine, we can use work-in-progress. The format does not need to be finalized. If you update it, you rebuild your images and bundle a new JavaScript decoder.
The ability to ship media along with a sandboxed, runnable decoder is awesome, and I'm surprised it hasn't caught on until now. I remember Google a while back implemented their own "video" codec in JavaScript using JPEGs and primitive inter-frame processing, exactly because there wasn't a universal video codec format they could use.