YouTube
is The Internet's most popular video-sharing platform, that has achieved worldwide popularity since it launched in 2005. While the official purpose of the site is to host amateur videos and promotional clips, it is unofficially the place where you can watch copyrighted materials from all types of mediums, search for random/odd clips and/or check out the latest blog entries and videos from notable users. It was founded by programming students Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim; the idea came to Karim when he had trouble finding clips of two major events in 2004: The Boxing Day Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami and later Janet Jackson's Wardrobe Malfunction at that year's Super Bowl halftime show.
Prior to Google's purchase of the company in November 2006, YouTube was a much smaller place. It hosted communication between individuals, who used it visually in otherwise the same manner as they had previously used Usenet or IRC. YouTube was also once the host of a number of people who had alternative news and media shows, but the opinions of such people were often extreme, or otherwise politically incorrect, and most of them have now been banned.
Users can upload their videos on whatever subject they want (unless it violates the "Community Guidelines" or someone files a copyright claim). The quality often ranges from below Ed Wood-type works to studio-quality materials, depending on what it is. Surprisingly, a lot of the personal videos of individuals often do have something to say that are actually worth watching and listening to. Some of the material is actually supplied by studios, including music videos that were uploaded by authorized agents of the record company. It should be noted that YouTube is also a place to watch movies and shows that have never been officially released, or are unavailable anywhere else.
A list of YouTubers with pages on this site can be found HERE.
Works produced by YouTube itself include YouTube Rewind and Webdriver Torso.
This website is the Trope Namer for:
- Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!
- Please Subscribe to Our Channel
- Virtual YouTuber
- YouTube Kids' Channel
- YouTube Poop
- YouTuber Apology Parody
Sorry about that.
