• Streaming media may make the Internet more popular than television.internet image by Stephanie Bandmann from Fotolia.com
  
  Keeping track of the way media is being delivered on the Internet can be a challenge. The dominant media streaming formats change as new innovators provide better streaming solutions. The most enduring streaming formats are those that can be accessed on all computer platforms and offer the highest quality delivery for the smallest amount of data.
  
  

Adobe Flash

• Adobe claims that 99 percent of all Internet connected computers have installed Adobe Flash Player, making it the current champ of streaming formats. Flash video is the featured technology used by the most popular video sharing websites. The success of Flash is due in large part to the full-featured media player being completely free to download in versions that support most every computer operating system and browser. Flash media uses the FLV extension for video, and FLAC extension for streaming audio.
  
  

Apple QuickTime

• The QuickTime player is native to the Apple computer platform and uses the MOV file extension. While Apple is known for providing high quality video compression, QuickTime is limited by the need to download a significant portion of the video before playback can begin. Most users prefer streaming formats that allow the video to appear almost instantly. While the QuickTime player is free, Apple pushes purchasing the "Pro" version to enable all the features available for QuickTime users.
  
  

MP3

• MP3 is a streaming audio format supported by every Internet based media player. With broadband Internet connections more prevalent, the higher bandwidth requirements of MP3 files make it a good choice for high quality audio delivery. Lower bandwidth MP3s can easily stream instantly with almost any broadband connection. The overwhelming support of this format by mobile audio devices make it the standard format for audio downloads that are not copy protected through digital rights management.
  
  

MPEG-4

• The most recent addition to popular streaming video formats is the latest version of MPEG. MPEG-4 uses a special encoding compression format, or "codec," known as H.264. H.264 has been lauded for extremely high quality and very small data requirements, making it the perfect solution to stream high definition video. MPEG-4 video is recognized by the MP4 extension, though Flash also implements this codec using the F4V extension.
  
  

Real Media

• Real Media once reigned as a major player in early Internet streaming technologies, but was sidelined by poor video performance and lawsuits over implementation of its media player. Real streaming media is distinguished by the same RM extension used for both audio and video files.
  
  

Windows Media

• Microsoft has leveraged its advantage of being the most used operating system to build a well-entrenched media streaming platform. Windows Media Player is included with every computer running a Microsoft operating system. Windows Media uses the WMV file extension for video, and WMA extension for audio. Many mobile audio devices fully support WMA files. Microsoft's Zune mobile media device is designed to work with Windows Media audio and video files. The lack of adoption by non-Windows computers has led content providers to prefer streaming formats that work equally well on all platforms.