YouTube’s quick and fabulous rise to the top was because it filled such a hungry need on the web. Like most brilliant ideas it filled a need that wasn’t even known in 2005: Web streaming video. In fact, YouTube created the way video is run on the internet.
Until the launch of YouTube most web designers and website owners did not even consider running video on the web. Video takes up a lot of bandwidth. It wasn’t until 2005 that enough bandwidth and computer speed was delivered to enough online viewers to make large-scale video streaming possible.
Video is also very difficult to configure on a server. A wide majority of websites are run from shared servers with rented space. A typical web designer still does not have the resources to easily stream video from a site. With the event of YouTube small businesses do not need to consider configuring their server space for video. Why bother? It is much more efficient to upload a video to YouTube, and then run it from a client’s website. In fact, not only is it easier and cheaper, but running the video on YouTube gives a business the added bonus of having the video found in YouTube searches, and creating a hot link from a highly rated site, which increases search engine placement.
A close look at Jawed Karim’s (the first Youtuber) trip to the zoo fills in the last piece of the puzzle that launched web video into online wealth building. In this video a young man is standing in front of the elephants, his friend is playing with the camera. We can be pretty sure that Jawed’s comments on the coolness of elephant trunks was not scripted or practiced. It’s a simple moment, caught in time. There is nothing commercial or slick about the video, and that is the true piece of the puzzle launching the video revolution.
Viewers are tired of being sold to every second of the day. In today’s market a simple website, with an honest, cheaply done video will get a better response than all the glitter of Hollywood. Youtube set the tone with its first video, and has been followed by every silly thing that can be imagined! Some of it is nasty and has to be blocked, some of it is so lame it is never looked at, and some of it is useful.
On YouTube you can learn to knit, play the guitar, do yoga and much more. You can watch Random Acts of Culture as they spread across America, and join in New Year’s celebrations hours after they have occurred. The first YouTube video has made a couple elephants in the San Diego zoo famous forever, and given us all opportunity to express ourselves in a way never imagined a decade ago.
