John Battelle has a Scoop: Google will launch an in-browser video playback feature based on the open source VLC media player.

This is the logical next step for Google’s video search and upload function, which began taking uploads from anyone who cared to submit back in April.

John has all the details and analysis. The best part of this deal, in my opinion – we finally will have an open source media player option with the backing of a large company. I think Windows Media Player will have some decent competition because it is going to finally raise the profile of VLC, which is a fantastic piece of software.

It could also mean, mostly similar experience across all platforms, though Google has shown an uncanny bias toward PC, and has been ignoring the mac community. I am still trying to digest the news, and will have more later.