Cisco recently shared some interesting predictions of its own looking at the future of online video. Stats from this research include:

- Internet traffic will increase fivefold over the next five years, driven in large part by a jump in the amount of video transmitted

- Over 90% of traffic will come from video (including TV, video on demand, or file sharing)

- Video chat will increase tenfold between 2008 and 2013

- the amount of data flowing to mobile devices will double each year, increasing 66 times by 2013, with video being the fastest growing category.

Another reason why online video will likely continue to grow in a big way is that HTML 5 is continuing its path toward wide acceptance.

A growing number of prominent companies that deliver content and services on the Web are putting their weight behind HTML 5 and touting it as the way forward for building interactive Web applications and deploying rich media in the browser.  Video is one of the most significant areas where this trend will have a major impact.

For content providers like YouTube and DailyMotion, the HTML 5 video element offers numerous advantages.  It integrates seamlessly with conventional HTML content and can be manipulated with JavaScript and CSS. This enables Web developers to build video player interfaces that are more consistent with the rest of their website. The ability to control playback with JavaScript allows video to be a more native part of the user experience in interactive Web applications.

There's no doubt that there are big things on the horizon for online video as a medium.  The heart of the matter is this – online video is rapidly expanding