3 Guys, A Few Ideas, And A Video Camera

Seeing as we are all in a 400 level communications class, I can safely assume we know at least basic English rules. An old classic I will definately never forget is the one where you can never define a word by using the original word in the definition. With this mindset, I found it rather humerous that when I set out on my adventure of discovering when and where YouTube was concieved, I went right to the source. To my suprise, when I YouTubed YouTube's history, I only found one link.

YouTube.com gained rapid popularity almost right away. It was initially created by 3 former employees of PayPal.com, Chad Hurley (a design major), Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim (computer science majors), according to Wikipedia.

As found on YouTube's official website, on February 15, 2005, Hurley, Chen and Karim registered the domain name YouTube.com. They saw their idea as a way for people to easily broadcast videos throughout the internet. The first official video (one of the creators, Karim, at the zoo) was posted on April 23, 2005, and in May an official public bandwith was launched attracting an average of 30,000 viewers per day. By November YouTube had over 200,000 registered users viewing about 2 million videos per day. Although YouTube was already gaining popularity they did not make their official web debut until Deceber 15, 2005.

Currently, YouTube.com is the 4th most visited website online, behind Yahoo!, Microstoft Network (MSN), and Google. As of April 9, 2008, YouTube allows access to about 83.4 million videos and has 3.75 registered user channels (Wikipedia).

There is so much to learn about YouTube, I didn't even know where to begin. After some deliberation, I decided that from the beginning was the smartest idea...

Let's figure this all out, shall we?

Everything has to start somewhere, right? Well, where "exactly" did YouTube.com begin? Now, I must confess, I began writing this post prior to looking up any sort of information. choosing YouTube as blog topic was 100% because I find it an intriguing website. I have no prior knowledge, and thought it would be a great way to discover how detailed, or perhaps simplistic, this rapidly growing phenomenon is.

I have several questions that I hope to gradually answer throughout my months of blogging. Questions such as:

• Who started YouTube.com? Can it's creation be pinpointed to one particular person or group of people.
• Is there any specified launch date? Or, did YouTube just sort of gradually make it's way on to our computer screens.
• Do the creators profit from the public's use of YouTube?
• Must you pay a fee to become a member of YouTube? Or is it complimentary.
• How long does it take to upload videos on YouTube?
• What are the stipulations as far as media rights and ownership?
• Must a person be certain age before they are old enough to use YouTube?
• How do other media outlets feel about YouTube?
• Can YouTube be a liable source for information?

I am sure there are many other questions and issues that need to, and hopefully will be addressed throughout the semester. As I get myself aquainted with YouTube, I hope to gain a better understanding of the internet as a whole. Perhaps, I could YouTube some how-to information on Internet for Dummies?

Welcome to MyTube

Due to an ever-growing lack of free time, I have found myself greatly intrigued by YouTube.com. Although YouTube.com made its internet debut just over 3 years ago, I have just recently, within the past few months, fallen in love with this concept.

I personally use YouTube.com as a late night pasttime. Once I get home from work, and before I go to bed, I CruiseTube. Usually in hopes of catching T.V. news segments, current celebrity gossip, or even music videos. Although these facets are availible all hours of the day, oftentimes schedules are conflicting, and cause me to miss things I would normally like to watch.I am interested in learning more about the ever-growing popularity of YouTube.com, how it has progressed, and how it has (positively or negatively) changed our culture.

I know I cannot be the only person that relies on YouTube.com for a majority of my entertainment needs, so I am curious to learn how other YouTubers percieve and maintain their affair.