Seven Castles

YouTube

                                      

September 10, 2006

 

Founded in February 2005 by three former and early employees of PayPal, YouTube is a website that allows users to upload, view, and share video clips worldwide. As one of the Internet's most trafficked websites, YouTube is building a community that is highly motivated to watch, share and commenting on videos in new ways.

 

YouTube is very much like flickr, but for videos. You can upload videos in a number of different formats (avi, mov and mpg). Videos can be of any length, but must be less than 100 MB in total size. The service is completely free to users (publishers and viewers). YouTube converts video to a flash format, and therefore upload and playback is extremely fast. Video feeds of YouTube videos can also be easily embedded on blogs and personal websites.

 

YouTube's continued survival is a bit of a mystery to some. It is popular due to its ability to host anyone's videos. It has a far more universal appeal, being pure entertainment with a global appeal. It hosts a variety of movie and TV show clips, music videos, and homemade videos. Despite its rules against posting copyrighted video, such material is in abundance. Actually, the site thrives in part on what appears to be copyright infringement. However, the video-sharing site does not allow users to upload pornographic or "adult" content. The line as to what will be allowed and what will not be allowed has not as of yet been clearly established, and YouTube relies heavily on user input to judge what content is "inappropriate". Generally any content that depicts explicit sex acts or uncovered frontal nudity (of either gender) is prohibited.

 

YouTube is also a sharing network. You can add friends who are also member of the network, and email any video to anyone. It also provides easy-to-use copy/paste code for emailing and posting on a website. You can also tag your videos, which results in bunching in a very similar way as flickr. Everyone can watch videos on YouTube. People can see first-hand accounts of current events, find videos about their hobbies and interests, and discover the quirky and unusual. As more people capture special moments on video, YouTube is empowering them to become the broadcasters of tomorrow.

 

Overall, the service is excellent. However, like other video sites, there are complaints about the video quality. One problem is that, with some videos, the audio and video do not match up. Another is that many videos end abruptly for no reason.

 

Growing like a weed, YouTube seems to have a great head start, with videos appearing on blogs and websites all over the place. It has established itself at the top of the league of the new generation of community websites by becoming even more popular than MySpace. Let us see if it can continue its momentum.

 

【作者: zhangliping】【访问统计:】【2006年09月10日 星期日 06:47】【 加入博采】【打印】