Youtube



YouTube is the number one online video-sharing website.

About
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005 and owned by Google since late 2006, on which users can upload, view and share videos.The company is based in San Bruno, California, and uses Adobe Flash Video and HTML5 technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including video clips, TV clips, and music videos, and amateur content such as video blogging, short original videos, and educational videos. Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, but media corporations including CBS, the BBC, Vevo, Hulu, and other organizations offer some of their material via YouTube, as part of the YouTube partnership program. Unregistered users can watch videos, and registered users can upload an unlimited number of videos. Videos considered to contain potentially offensive content are available only to registered users affirming themselves to be at least 18 years old. YouTube, LLC was bought by Google for US$1.65 billion in November 2006 and now operates as a Google subsidiary.

Social Impact
While other video hosting websites had been launched before YouTube in 2005 (including Metacafe in 2003 and Vimeo in 2004), YouTube was conceived to be, a place where anyone could upload content that everyone else could view. That was a new concept because up until that point, it was always the people who owned the website who would provide the content. Many videos have sparked international attention either for being extremely lame and stupid like Charlie bit my finger or extremely out there an unusually like Gangnam Style the most viewed video on youtube. The social impact both positive and negative of youtube is undeniable.

Communities
Youtube has given rise to many communities and groups all with their own goals and people, of course many of these communities overlap. These communities communicate with each other by comments, private messages, videos and video responses and since google+ has live chats, video conferencing and google+ communities.

Mergers, Takeovers and Related Problems
Youtube has a tragic history of mergers and takeovers, once upon a time youtube was a wondrous free place, nearly no advertisement, trolls or other similar nuisances. This all changed when Google bought youtube and now Google has gone so far as to merge their most successful product youtube with their least successful product Google+ forcing everyone to use it. Besides these two events Youtube also has a long history of forcing unnecessary updates that nobody has asked for upon their users which they have to except no matter what. These are two videos by Bob Smeerfak who deal with this problem.

Censorship and Power Abuse
Many countries, places and companies have censored, blocked or filtered parts of youtube, to suit their own power hungry agenda's. Furthermore countless companies abuse their power by demanding youtube to remove videos that they state are infringing into their copyright when they aren't. In short youtube is a slave to the mighty, the powerful and the rich.