"What became of SMIL?"
It is a question I hear frequently from colleagues and acquaintances. "SMIL," for those new to the term, refers to the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language. It is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) language that allows Web authors to position and time media elements for display in a Web multimedia browser. With SMIL, the Web is no longer a place of still text and images. It becomes a true multimedia universe. The "what became of" part speaks to the fact that SMIL has gradually dropped off the radar of all but the most dedicated Web multimedia enthusiast.

So what did become of SMIL?

A One Format Show?
While the birthing process of SMIL began much sooner than Spring of 1998, most SMIL enthusiasts were introduced to the W3C language at that time. RealNetworks, one of the biggest ongoing supporters of SMIL, rolled out their new G2 player. This second generation RealPlayer showed off the expected improvements in audio and video streaming. But weaving it all together was SMIL. People understoond SMIL as HTML for multimedia. Now a streaming media developer had much greater control of where and when media played in the window. Low bandwidth solutions like streaming images and linkable text added sophistication. By no means was it as impressive as Macromedia Director. But this was a language designed around the Internet. And the vision of things to come was tantalizing.

But when it came time for the W3C to offer its recommendation for the language a few months later, Microsoft and Macromedia decided to pull out of the W3C SMIL process. Sure there were still other important players. But to many, it now seemed that SMIL was a one format show.

Of course with a great idea, even a one format show can make it on the Internet. RealNetworks is a dominant streaming browser. So while Microsoft and Macromedia proposed their own HTML+TIME version of SMIL to the W3C, RealNetworks continued to integrate SMIL more tightly into their player. Most RealPlayer consumers use SMIL on a regular basis. They just have no idea SMIL is the mechanism driving the layout and timing of media in the RealPlayer window.