Photo and Story By Joe Zlomek

When real estate agents add video and interactive content to their websites, they often face a thorny problem: not everyone can view it, sometimes not even the sellers or buyers it's intended to impress.

Operating systems share some of the blame. Windows rarely does Mac well, if at all. Macintosh does Windows, but usually only with software purchased at added cost. Linux isn't even known to most.

Or blame the broswers. What works correctly in Internet Explorer may appear differently in Firefox, or Opera, or Safari.

Microsoft now hopes to solve both issues.

During a keynote address yesterday (May 15, 2007) at the Streaming Media East 2007 conference in New York City, the Redmond WA software manufacturer introduced new technology it calls Silverlight. Expected to be available later this summer, Silverlight is a free, download-once and use-for-all plug-in that promises to make web video viewing fast and easy.

Silverlight also is the foundation of a whole suite of software products that Microsoft claims will make video content easier to create, distribute, and re-use. The package of four components is expected to sell for $599.

Silverlight, and the software into which it's being built, reportedly brings speed and uniformity to the currently mixed bag of web video results.

In some ways, according to Sean Alexander, head of the Silverlight development team, web visitors demanded such products. Their "interactivity expectation," he says, has been heightened by what the web already delivers, so they are less tolerant in waiting for computers to buffer a video stream or slowly download an MP3.

Silverlight video will flow smoothly, Alexander says, without stops or stutters, no matter what platform, screen size, resolution, video format or browser is used.

It allows accompanying advertising, too. A video of fixer-upper, for example, could be framed by ads promoting a home improvement contractor. This "monetizing" of interactive content might provide new revenue streams to brokers.

Among company representatives singing Silverlight's praises was Justin Schaffer, vice president of Major League Baseball's MLB.com interactive website. It streams live and archived baseball game video and radio broadcasts to up to a million viewers weekly, Schaffer says. He showed how MLB.com used Silverlight features to help users customize their viewing experience.

Related content: After 14 Years, Streaming Media Grows Up (May 16, 2007)