Tip of the moment: HTML 5 Youtube

Not quite sure how many of you have heard, but YouTube has introduced HTML5 onto their site not too long ago. This is actually great news for people who are getting sick and tired of Flash eating up CPU cycles.

So, what's the difference? Well, for one, you're substituting Adobe Flash, a proprietary technology that's developed by Adobe, with HTML5, a open standard for web design. One major benefit of HTML5 is that because it's more up-to-date and designed with today's internet usage in mind, it's geared better towards things like YouTube HD than, say Adobe Flash, which has only been building up more and more complex features since its conception in an unsustainable manner.

Just did some eyeball (non-scientific) tests here, and I found myself going from ~77% CPU usage for YouTube HD on Adobe Flash to less than 15% when on HTML 5. That means I still can do other things SMOOTHLY while the video is buffering.

Youtube's HTML5 implementation is still a bit experimental at the moment - You can't do fullscreen, and it won't be loaded on videos with ads. (You'll still see Flash for such videos). But when you fire up a HD, ad-free video like my montage of my visit to SG, you'll be enjoying it without taxing your CPU too much.

Also note that it's only supported by the latest HTML5-compliant browsers with h.264 codec., like Google Chrome (or IE w/ Google Chrome Frame) and Safari 4.

I recommend giving it a shot if you hate Flash, like Mr Steven P Jobs.

Opt-in at http://www.youtube.com/html5

Also check out http://www.youtube.com/testtube for other work-in-progress BETA stuff!