First video posted to YouTubeIt took a 19-second video that consisted of a young guy talking about elephants at the zoo that kicked off a revolution that changed the way the world creates and digests video content online.
That revolution was YouTube, which officially kicked off with a video post titled, "Me at the zoo," on April 23, 2005.
While the domain name, Youtube.com, was registered on February 14, 2005, the video phenomenon kicked off five years ago today when Yakov Lapitsky posted footage of one of YouTube’s founders, Jawed Karim, at the San Diego Zoo, talking about elephants.
By 2006, YouTube was boasting nearly 65,000 uploads per day. Fast forward to today and YouTube — arguable Google's greatest acquisition — now serves about 1 billion videos per day.
In just five years, the service has grown to be the king of online video and the name brand is also used as a verb in a similar fashion as the word, "Google," i.e. "You should YouTube that."
With everything from news clips, to funny animal tricks to shocking celebrity hook-ups YouTube has become the ultimate mix of time-suck and relevant information.
Need to figure out how to set up WiFi in your house? YouTube it.
Need to see what the new iPad really looks like and if a cat can use it? YouTube it.
Interested in hearing what the local news in Podunk, USA is covering these days? YouTube it.
Just like Google, it's hard to imagine a web without YouTube. It has become a main content channel for a wide cross section of generations — even those that aren't familiar with navigating the web know what YouTube is.
What's amazing is that in just five years, YouTube became YouTube and as a result, spawned such services Blip.tv, Vimeo, UStream, Qik, etc. One could say that YouTube is the God Father of online video and it's only five years old.
Imagine what we'll be talking about in 2015.
Read more: http://technorati.com/blogging/article/elephants-and-the-online-video-revolution/#ixzz0lwIeuQmJ