You've probably been hearing a lot about the new HTML5 standards and video. I see a lot of web sites claiming that we are two years or more away from HTML5. Not so. It is here now. Not in full force - not with 100% implementation and full browser support, but it is here in force and with good browser support.
HTML5 video adoption among browsers has gone well so far — Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera all support native video, and baked-in support is
coming to Internet Explorer 9 next year. But it’s still a bit of a mess, with different browsers supporting different formats. So those posting HTML5 video still need to encode their files in at least two of the three major formats — the widely-used H.264, the newer WebM, or the older Ogg Theora — to guarantee all HTML5 capable browsers will be able to see their videos.
HTML5 will let you host video on your web site that can be viewed by Apple devices. Your code can be written so that Flash will be used for older browsers.
With so many people using iPhones and iPads, I think it is a mistake to offer Flash-only or YouTube only video. You'll just have brides clicking away from your stuff so they can view your competitors' videos!
According to this article -
http://www.webmonkey.com/2010/06/youtube-html5-video-is-no-match-for-flash/..YouTube has no intention of switching to HTML5 any time soon.
For some specifics on how to implement HTML5 video on your website, see -
http://www.html5rocks.com/tutorials/video/basics/HTML5 isn't just for video though. It's going to shake up the Web World and offer so much more capabilities to web owners. For a quick preview, see -
http://www.html5rocks.com/
