Silverlight out in the Wild
Careful! This post is looking a little old and could be inaccurate in many, many ways
Today I came across one of the first implementations (i’ve seen) of Microsoft’s Silverlight not to be produced by Microsoft themselves.
http://www.itv.com/CatchUp/default.html
ITV’s own version of the BBC iPlayer appears to utilise both Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight together. Although Flash is used to create the interface of the application it appears that Silverlight is being used in some capacity for the streaming of video content.
When starting to play a video the Silverlight logo can clearly be seen as well as a message about the use of Silverlight to broaden the applications compatibility with Firefox and Mac users. This is obviously a good thing considering the high profile issues the BBC iPlayer had with compatibility through various operating systems.
Although I have not used Silverlight to develop anything myself I have high hopes for it. Although it may not be the Flash killer some have speculated it may help push along development of media-rich web applications and hopefully make them easier to use and develop.