Ian Hickson, author and maintainer of Web Applications 1.0/HTML 5 specification.

Google employee, maintains HTML 5 including HTML 5 video spec, European, worked previously at Netscape and Opera. Sounds about right.

A number of open source pantywaists are getting their knickers in a right sheepshank over the burgeoning alliance between champeen of open source code, Google (really? Tell me and the rest of the community out there, what’s the secret algorithm, then, Squirrel Boy?), and proprietary graphic media overlords Adobe (you know, they didn’t invent Flash, they only bought the company that invented the stuff). It’s no secret that there is going to be netbooks and tablets by Christmas which will support Flash running the Chrome OS and be out there competing and getting a fair share of what traditionally had been Windows (and Linux’s) share of the market. Part of the scuttlebutt about that fabled meeting between Dear Leader and Squirrel Boy on the coffee shop patio touched on how Google is going to be influencing Adobe on improving the code in Flash, perhaps finally making it open source, though I wouldn’t bet on Flash going GPL or LGPL, probably closer to MPL. Another part of the scuttlebutt is that Jobs wanted it confirmed by looking straight in Squirrel Boy’s face whether or not Google and Adobe has been feeling each other out for eventual merger. (You’d think the part of the reason Jobs is abandoning Adobe is because Google is embracing it ?) Say what you will about Squirrel Boy, though, the engineers at Google insist on writing tight elegant code that gets peer reviewed to death before it goes out into the wild. Adobe, Microsoft and even Apple, on the other hand, have been known to release unsecure code, either knowingly or unknowingly, until some white, black or gray hat hacker informs the community, the company involved or the rest of the world, forcing a quick (or not so quick) patch. If Google’s engineers get to fiddle underneath the hood of Adobe Flash, one of two things may happen: 1.) They’ll probably think, “What a load of crud!”, throw the whole thing out and insist on starting from scratch, or 2.) pare down and eliminate all the buggy and useless stuff and make Flash both speedy and secure. I’m betting on the first option, myself. A third unstated option may be, why not stick with HTML 5****, and work on making that work more smoothly, more quickly and more secure, and to hell with Flash, Silverlight, Pivot and JavaFX? If that option crops up, I’d blame the blind idealists within Google’s code monkey tribe. Part of what makes Google successful is that they used open source code from day one in their operation and are now the eighty ton King Kong in the free and open source world, paying for and dictating the direction of where a lot of that code should go and that’s okay for most developers (except for a few justified paranoid cases out there). Microsoft is failing because they own the code they roll out and want to make the whole world use and pay for that code through the nose and dictate how the users employ the code. Then they ditch or disable that code just enough that you have to buy an upgrade that does exactly the same thing. People are getting sick and tired of that, especially since the Redmond brand of code is really, really, really sloppy, is still buggy and gets in the users way. People buy into Apple’s stuff because it’s code looks cool and elegant and doesn’t get in anybody’s way when they wanna’ do something (most of the time). People don’t mind upgrading, in fact, line up for days in anticipation of the new stuff. Google’s stuff is simple and just works. And if there’s a problem or the stuff don’t fly, out it goes, on to the next project.  Adobe’s stuff is slow, unwieldy and complicated. Now it needs a smart injection soon, especially if enough iPads take off to seriously influence how developers use video and graphics on the web. Who knows, if Google fixes Flash to the satisfaction of a certain man in Cupertino ….

****The HTML5 editor is Ian Hickson of Google, Inc. Just thought you ought to know, folks. So, that’s another reason Dear Leader may have been having that nice chat with Squirrel Boy.

Google makes another interesting purchase, and today’s lucky lottery winner is online streaming video service Episodic, who are as gullible as oysters in a walrus’s tummy happy as clams about being acquired by thieving lying turncoat mental patients joining a world class widely despised respected brand. My guess is Google needs to add some pizazz and income potential to YouTube and none of the geniuses in the people’s republic of engineers running the show beneath management didn’t have an inclination or desire to work on that problem. Whaddya’ do? Buy some brains and intellectual property who’ve already solved the problem. Ta’ da! Enter Episodic, bring in the lawyers, sign the contracts, borg the technology into YouTube, and cross your fingers and hope that baby makes a bigger revenue to line Squirrel Boy’s coffers.

From This Isn’t Happiness.

In a predictable response, the Chinese government, that paragon of transparency, has slammed Google’s closure of their China site.

Google.cn is now closed for business.  All queries are being re-routed to Google.hk. TechCrunch mogul Michael Arrington has more. Google’s company line is here. Update: Comments from Sergey. He says: “The story’s not over yet.”

Reports say the 10th is when Google shuts ‘er down in China.  More here.

This story from CNET says Google is 99.9% likely to exit China.  That’s a big 1% left over, but given the recent Chinese rhetoric, it also wouldn’t be surprising.

The New York Times discusses the battle for the very future of humanity between Apple and Google.  Money quote from a Valley observer: “It’s World War III. Amazing animosity is motivating two of the most powerful people in the industry,” he says. “This is emotional. This is the biggest ego battle in history. It’s incendiary.” Cool artwork, too.

Great article here on the lengths some cities are going to make sure they score that blazing-fast Google fiber optic connection.