YouTube

YouTube is a website which users can upload, share, and view videos. It also has integrated forums ability beneath each video. It was set-up by three former paypal employees in February 2005.

An account isn’t required to view videos, though to upload, rate, and comment or watch videos only available to older audiences an account must be made. Prior to YouTube internet users had very limited methods of uploading. With it’s simple interface YouTube opened up this ability, and likewise the universal hub for watching videos attracted many, meaning uploaded videos could potentially be watched by anyone elsewhere on the Earth.

It’s social status today is very high and YouTube can be seen as the most popular part of internet culture, with “viral” videos or memes gaining millions of views and having influences all across the internet.

The user created nature has led to many internet success’ and homebrew gems, though YouTube has encountered criticism because users can upload copyrighted material without permission. The site has a strong and strictly enforced user agreement and holds the right to remove videos or users at will, although the simplicity to recreate an account and reupload the video makes tackling this problem nigh on impossible.

Occasionally some of the content is inappropriate with pornography, animal cruelty and other illegal content contained. Though hard work is done to keep the site clean this is still a major problem.

Tackling copyright and illegal content YouTube higher a 24/7 team that review content.

Corporate presence is ever growing and in attempt to replicate the success of some of the videos forced publicity stunts often show up. Furthermore, adverts, clips and videos are released in conjunction with other products in order to frenzy interest, for example music videos to a new album or trailers and behind-the-scenes footage of  an upcoming movie.

The site makes revenue through advertising that appears in side boxes or at the bottom of the playing video. While this removes fees they can be very annoying and intrusive.

Previously the videos could be rated on a scale of 1-5 stars but today this has been changed to a “like” or “dislike” button, gauging the general reception.

 In addition, other info like when and how many views the content has had is included below. The user can attach a “description” outlining the video or providing back-story to its creation if they wish.

Furthermore, alternative audio tracks and annotations can be added, allowing users to cater for different languages. The annotations can be used creatively such as to add lyrics or hyperlink to other videos.

The videos can be in almost any quality and the ability to upload in high definition is now available, though the processing process typically damages the picture and notably the audio quality. This is often cited as YouTube’s primary downfall and where it’s competitors capitalise, with a large amount of professional quality content being attached to competitor blip.tv’s service instead.

The comments section has become a major feature and an internet standard for most other sites today, but YouTube was one of the first to implement it and so fully. Videos, channels and users have comment boards and while watching the video visitors can discuss it and read others people comments. The major innovation was loading the comments and allowing them to be uploaded without refreshing the page and restarting the video, meaning conversation and watching the video can be done simultaneously.  Typically these are quotes from the video people have found amusing, discussions such as issues raised or comparisons to other works, though alot of these comments can be negative and spiteful, with many videos being overrun by “trolls”, people who serve to annoy the target audience or to upset uploaders. Because of the high viewing figures some people or “bots” acting on their behalf post adverts without paying. Though this will result in an immediate ban when found, but the delay between being discovered and how many people see the video makes this non-the-less profitable.