Google's Other Challenge to Microsoft: Silverlight

Kevin Maney writes: In our interview last week, Marc Andreessen brought up something that I hadn't heard before: That Google's Chrome browser poses a threat to both Microsoft's Silverlight video software and Flash.

The most significant part of Chrome, Andreessen said, is the super-fast JavaScript update that Google's engineers wrote. It's so fast, that it may entice developers to make video play in the browser without needing either the Flash or Silverlight plug-ins.

That same thought is starting to pop up in blogs. TechSpot notes that a conversation with a Microsoft spokesman left the blogger feeling that Microsoft is more than a little concerned about the threat to Silverlight. And CNET reports that the Chrome challenge was the talk of Microsoft's Tech.Ed conference in Sydney, Australia.

There's no question that for consumers, playing video that doesn't require some plug-in download is definitely a better experience. For Microsoft and Adobe, which offers Flash, it would be a setback to plans to sell video software.