Martin James Scherr, husband of Sandra Scherr, father of Brian Scherr, son of Carl & Helen Scherr passed away at 6:30AM August 11, 2009. Martin graduated from Forest Hills High School, served in the US Air Force during the Korean War, earned a Doctor of Chiropractic degree, was a Mason, founded and ran Medi-Lab & Label, Inc. and raised a family in Roslyn, NY. Martin had a kind soul full of love. His big blue eyes and smile would light up any room he entered. He made people laugh, was everyone’s friend and always tried to help those in need. Active in the Shelter Rock Jewish Center, Martin was proud of his heritage. Martin Scherr built a wonderful life for himself and those around him. We will always admire his courage, determination and humanity. His spirit and knowledge is carried on by those who had the honor of knowing him. You are free to soar on the wings you so rightly earned. We love you daddy.

A gravesite funeral will take place Wednesday August 12, 2009 at Wellwood Cemetery, NY (631-249-2300). Guests are encouraged to meet at Front Office by 1:30pm.

Google and On2 have announced a definitive agreement that will result in the Google acquisition of On2 for a transaction valued at approximately $106.5 million. On2′s feature product is the industry leading VP6-E and VP6-S video codecs. The VP6-E for Flash and JavaFX video and the VP6-S profile for High Definition (HD), full screen video are available in their Flix Video Encoding and Publishing software packages. The On2 Flix Engine also supports the H.264 codec for Flash, iPhone and iPod. On2 customers include Adobe, Skype, Nokia, Sun Microsystems, Sony, and Brightcove. The On2 acquisition gives Google ownership of a prolific and critical codec for the delivery of video content. On the heels of the recent HTML5 video tag debacle, Google appears to be strengthening its position for the next video codec showdown.

“Today video is an essential part of the web experience, and we believe high-quality video compression technology should be a part of the web platform,” said Sundar Pichai, Vice President, Product Management, Google. “We are committed to innovation in video quality on the web, and we believe that On2’s team and technology will help us further that goal.” Google to Acquire On2 Technologies [Business Wire].

Here is the email FAQ that all On2 license holders received:

“There are a number of details to work out as the transaction proceeds, but I wanted to take a minute to answer some immediate questions about what it means for our Flix products and customers.

Q: Who do I deal with for Flix technical and sales support?
A: You’ll still deal with On2 as you always have. We will keep you closely informed of any changes (for example, new email addresses) as they occur.

Q: Why is Google acquiring On2?
A: Google has indicated to us that they are continually looking to improve video quality and delivery on the web, and that our video technologies will allow them to do even more with their products and initiatives. They have indicated that they are interested in all parts of our video technology. With Google Video, Google Talk and YouTube, among others, they have a substantial interest in developing tools and technology that will better support more high quality video on the Internet. Google has indicated that they believe that our team and technology will help Google make higher quality video available online.

Q: What will happen to Flix?
A: Google is acquiring all of On2 and therefore all On2 products. It is too early to discuss specific product plans until the deal closes, however, all existing agreements will remain in effect under their existing terms.

Q: What, if anything, will happen to my license?
A: All agreements you have with On2 remain in effect under their existing terms. We expect that Google would honor its obligations under existing contracts.”

Read Google to Acquire On2 Technologies on businesswire.com

Read more about VP6-E and the VP6-S profile for High Definition (HD)

Visit On2 Technologies Inc.

Before there was Google, Bing, Facebook or Twitter, there was Yahoo. On Wednesday, Microsoft put to sleep one of the truly great original Internet brands. Yahoo search is no more in 2010. All Yahoo search capabilities will be migrated into Microsoft’s new search engine Bing. The remaining Yahoo brand will function mostly as an AOL style content portal, probably destined for a similar fate.

“A search and advertising deal announced Wednesday means Yahoo’s once-dominant search engine will grind to a halt for 10 years, replaced by Microsoft’s often-revamped and newly branded Bing. Yahoo gets a big slice of text ad revenue, and Microsoft buys itself into a (distant) second place in the search race, still with less than half the searches as Google.” Yahoo Gives Up, Turns Search Over to Bing [Wired].

And now, there are two.

“Forget that Yahoo was one of the first significant internet brands to come out of Silicon Valley. That it has been a leader in cool web technologies, from Hadoop to Flickr to its open search interface and its support for new web standards. That it recognized and bought smart tech companies like Flickr, Zimbra and Delicious.

By letting Microsoft take over its search engine, Yahoo has essentially announced it can’t keep up with Google and Microsoft and instead will focus on amusing users with multimedia deals and Fantasy Football leagues.

Microsoft, for its part, gets a huge bump in traffic to its revamped search engine and online text ad platform. Bing, which currently handles about 8 to 10 percent of U.S. searches, will jump to something in the neighborhood of 30 percent. And by capturing one opposing army, they dramatically simplify the battle lines and create a two-sided conflict.” Yahoo Gives Up, Turns Search Over to Bing [Wired].

It is unfortunate that after decades of success, Microsoft still prefers corporate warfare to innovation. Some things never change.

Goodbye Yahoo, you will be missed. Say hi to Netscape for us.