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December 8, 2006
YouTube Chronicles the World
Dear Larry,
What exactly is YouTube?
R. D.
Dear R. D.,
In short, YouTube is the world on video.
Go to http://www.youtube.com,
type something of interest in the search box, and see just about anything you
can imagine along with some things that are completely unimaginable.
The YouTube web site is for the most part a central reserve
where everyday users of the Internet go to submit, share, and view each other’s
video recordings. Like eBay, YouTube doesn’t create the material; it just acts
as a clearinghouse and presides over the festivities. The site is completely
free and paid for by advertising.
As life on the Internet goes, YouTube is barely out of the
womb. It premiered in 2005 and quickly encouraged the common (and the not so
common) man and woman to use it as a repository for amateur videos along with
excerpts from movies, TV, and other mass media.
Many of the videos you’ll find there appear to violate every
copyright law in the books. Want to find snippets from your favorite episodes of
House M. D.? They’re there. And why don’t the makers of House M. D. sue YouTube?
Simple...the videos there represent a critical mass of viewership that generates
more viewers, more interest, more dialogue, and ultimately more revenue.
It wasn’t always like that. Earlier this year—in what seemed
like a replay of the Napster debacle—NBC, CBS, and others threatened the site
with copyright infringement. While YouTube made some attempt to comply, their
phenomenal growth in a matter of months resulted in the irony of ironies: The
broadcasting Goliaths reconsidered their stance and instead of fighting the
upstart in the Courts, they partnered with it. Other strategic partnerships
followed with Warner Music, Sony, and EMI joining the “fray.”
Time magazine named YouTube the 2006 invention of the year,
and Google bought the garage-born company for $1.65 billion in stock. Not bad
for the three twenty-somethings from PayPal who started the venture.
Do you like the musical Wicked? Live videos from the Broadway
phenomenon—some outrageously shaky and bad, some surprisingly steady and
good—are on tap.
It was YouTube where the racially insensitive video first
surfaced that squashed former Senator George Allen’s bid for reelection and
preparations for a 2008 presidential nomination.
Everything from the sublime to the ridiculous can be found
residing there. Catch the woman singing along with her iPod at the beach. See
David Letterman once again embarrass Richard Simmons by booby-trapping his food
steamer. Catch bowler Mike Machuga celebrate his first PBA title by performing
his “Machuga Flop.” Did you miss the Clay Aiken-Kelly Ripa misstep on Live with
Regis and Kelly and all the goings-on that followed? Thanks to YouTube, there
always seems to be an eye in the sky that catches all the nonsense down here on
planet Earth.
After you’ve gotten your daily fill, consider submitting your
own recording...and maybe, just maybe, you’ll find that your fifteen minutes of
fame waiting for you on the web.
This is Larry Schneider, logging off.
