YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can view, upload, and download video. YouTube offers a wide variety of videos, from those posted by individuals to those posted by musicians, comedians, and TV networks.
YouTube allows users to add keywords, or tags, to videos. Tags used on YouTube help users categorize, organize, and search for videos on particular subjects. YouTube also incorporates a system that enables users to rate the quality of a video. Furthermore, the site provides a means by which users can start a discussion about a video, thereby following some of the features of a social networking website . Viewers can also e-mail YouTube video links to their friends.
In addition to the simple videos shared among the site’s users, YouTube offers such videos as material created by college professors for use in courses, advertising by political campaigns, and video diaries known as vlogs. Popular videos, such as videos showing geyser fountains created from candy and diet soft drinks, became cultural phenomena. Little known bands have made low-budget videos and gained a sizable audience of fans when these videos have become popular on YouTube.
YouTube was founded in 2005 by the American graphic designer Chad Hurley and two computer scientists, the Taiwanese-born Steve Chen and the German-born Jawed Karim. The three established the site after they had difficulty finding videos of specific events online. In November 2006, YouTube was purchased by Google Inc. , a huge internet search engine company. By late 2006, YouTube’s viewership had grown so large that mainstream television networks were seeking ways to promote programs by making clips of shows available on the site. YouTube videos became available on more devices than just computers, as cellular telephones , televisions that were internet-enabled with such devices as Apple TV and TiVo, and certain electronic game consoles , such as Nintendo’s Wii, became able to show YouTube’s offerings.
In 2007, YouTube partnered with Cable News Network (CNN) for a series of debates with presidential candidates in which YouTube users could post a video of themselves asking a candidate a question. Some observers viewed these debates as a signal that YouTube had risen to a position alongside, if not equal to, traditional television broadcasters.
