The biggest headlines from the opening-day Wednesday session of the Google I/O developers’ conference were grabbed by Google’s video plans. In an announcement, Google said that it is donating its VP8 video format and packaging it into a much more wide-ranging multimedia format – branded WebM.

Google revealed that both formats will be available under an open-source, royalty-free license; and that the company intends building the standard into its Chrome browser. As per Google, the WebM would substitute the existing miscellany of online video formats which are mostly tied down with proprietary licenses and royalty requirements - with a single, open-source format.

Apparently, Google is hoping that its new hassle-free video format would attract an increasing number of Web users to spend more time online, which in turn will only be an added plus for Google’s ad business.

In addition, Google is also hopeful that another one of its forthcoming initiatives, the Chrome Store, might also help the company keep more users online. The will supposedly mark an advancement in the way browser-based applications, like Gmail and Intuit’s Mint, have virtually invaded the area which was earlier confined to programs that came on a disk.

The conference witnessed an array of demonstrations pertaining to the kind of new apps that will become available via the Chrome Store; and also underscored the fact that the initiative will result in far richer and more interactive ads.