What is Youtube?

YouTube is a video-sharing website that is changing American culture. It seems that every day, some short video clip on YouTube makes headline news. Here’s the story behind the phenomenal success of YouTube, and some tips on how you can join the fun.

YouTube: 100 Million Videos Strong

Youtube was created by three pals from PayPal – Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim – who raised $3.5 million in venture capital to debut their open exchange video site in November 2005. Less than a year later, Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion. Can you say “cha ching?”
The concept is brilliantly simple. People post videos on YouTube and watch and comment on the videos others have posted. The videos can be anything from a simple rant into a cell phone camera by a frustrated teenager to a favorite sports clip Tivo’d off of ESPN – and everything in between. The numbers generated by YouTube are staggering. One hundred million videos are on the YouTube servers, with 65,000 new ones uploaded every day. They’re watched by 20 million viewers a month.
The simplicity of the technology has aided its popularity. YouTube uses the popular Macromedia FlashPlayer 7 and the Sorenson Spark H.263 codec – which offers the combined quality of Windows Media Player and Apple’s QuickTime without the need to download additional browser plug-ins. In simpler terms, you click and the video plays… period.

The YouTube Community

Youtube is a true global community – with numerous user groups and contests to encourage users to create their own videos, reachable through the “Community” button on any page. The contests might focus on ways to spend a tax refund, telling your darkest secrets, or creating a new music video and some have large cash prizes.
Youtube discourages users from downloading videos to their own computers, preferring that they watch videos online. However, you may embed videos in your own website. Copy the code from the embed box found under “About this Video” on the right while the video is playing. Copy the code, then paste it into your website or blog to embed it.
There are a number of other video sharing sites – including Google Video, UnCut Video on AOL, Vimeo, EyeSpot and VideoEgg. < target=”_blank” a href=”http://revver.com/”&gt;Revver is a popular choice for video producers who want to explore ways to earn money for their work. Video on the web is growing exponentially, but so far nothing can match the cultural impact or enormous volume of YouTube.