&gt; I think a lack of free and open video formats (and editing software) is partly to blame for its meteoric rise.<p>GIF isn&#x27;t a free and open video format either. The LZW algorithm used to compress them was patented in the 80s and didn&#x27;t expire in most jurisdictions until 2003-2004.<p>If we want to see more efficient unencumbered video coding methods used online, the answer is most likely is going to have to come from patent reform (making patent lifetimes shorter).<p>The situation with H.264 isn&#x27;t ideal if you&#x27;re looking for purity, but licensed decoders are pretty readily available (most phones have at least one hardware decoder for it; Google&#x2F;Microsoft&#x2F;Apple pay to license the patents for Chrome&#x2F;Windows (IE)&#x2F;OS X (Safari); Cisco pays the license the patents for its binaries too).