Google recently announced that its Chrome web browser will stop supporting the H.264 video format. Microsoft today released the Windows Media Player HTML5 Extension for Chrome. The extension is compatible with Google's Chrome 8.0 or later and Windows 7 OS. It enables Chrome users to play H.264-encoded videos (aka MP4) on HTML5 pages by using the built-in capabilities found in Windows 7.

"We believe that Windows customers should be able to play mainstream HTML5 video and Internet Explorer 9 will support playback of H.264 video as well as VP8 video when the user has installed a VP8 codec," Microsoft's Claudio Caldato wrote at the company's ineroperability blog.

Microsoft has been already offering Windows Media Player plug-in for Firefox, which is downloaded by users who want to watch Windows Media content.

The company also recently provided an add-on for Windows 7 users who choose Firefox to play H.264 video so as to enable interoperability across IE, Firefox and Chrome using HTML5 video on Windows.

For many reasons, H.264 is an excellent and widely-used video format that serves the web very well today.

The extension can be dowloaded here.