The first video on YouTube was uploaded 10 years ago today - it's really mundane

[Surya Gayatri]

Source: The Independent

With an unfathomable amount of videos existing on YouTube (300 hours of footage are now uploaded every minute), it's hard to believe it all began just 10 years ago with this video of a guy at a zoo looking at some elephants.

If YouTube launched today it would probably do so with a flashy video outlining its concept, but the internet was only a toddler in 2005 and internet start-ups weren't that sophisticated.

'And that's pretty much all there is to say...'

As it turned out, there would be a hell of a lot more to say on YouTube.

'Me at the zoo' was the first video uploaded to the site, simply showing a man standing in front an elephant enclosure saying: "Alright so here we are in front of the elephants, and the cool thing about these guys is that they have really, really, really long, trunks, and that's cool. And that's pretty much all there is to say."

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/the-first-video-on-youtube-was-uploaded-10-years-ago-today--its-really-mundane-10197816.html?icn=puff-image-4

---

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO 'YA, YOUTUBE!!!

YouTube has changed our world beyond all imaging in just 10 short years, in both good and bad ways. Public discourse and human interaction will never be the same.

[Bosonic]

1. Strong start Elephants, but cats/dogs have better PR

[Surya Gayatri]

2. Boy, ain't that the truth. The elephants didn't have chance

in competition with "Teh Squeee".

[freshwest]

7. Or this classic with 20,448,901 views so far:

Otters holding hands

Uploaded on Mar 19, 2007

Vancouver Aquarium: two sea otters float around, napping, holding hands. SO CUTE!

I watched all the presidential debates and campaign stops, etc. for a few years there. It was its heyday, possibly a few years before that video. There were many lovely videos made and posted, very educational and I made some good contacts. A lot of advocacy and anti-war groups assembled and they uploaded demonstrations but the MSM would not cover these events, even if they had many thousands. We really learned the difference, as these things were large and in major east coast cities, yet had no coverage. The same year as the Otter video, this came out:

By 2008 youtube changed. It had a lot of liberal voices, went into a lot of very interesting stuff, then got trolled by conservatives and racists and even Nazis and white supremacists. Now it's a cesspool. And they've changed it over the years so that a lot creativity is gone and it's all commercial. That was because they sold it.

[Surya Gayatri]

8. 'Now it's a cesspool...That was because they sold it.'

That about covers it.

[PassingFair]

3. Embarrassing and de-railing conservatives for 10 years!!!

Happy Birthday YouTube!!!

[Surya Gayatri]

4. YouTube - Front line in the fight against RW insanity!!!

[PassingFair]

5. The Canoodle!!

Rick Renzi and Katherine Harris

Macaca:

[Surya Gayatri]

6. Ah, memories, memories...LOL!

[Archae]

9. I have a Youtube site...

Not much there though.

Kittens, Star Trek and Florence Ambrose, oh, and my Mom.

https://www.youtube.com/user/Archae06

[Surya Gayatri]

10. Mandatory...kittehs!

[Archae]

11. Of course.

(I added the URL)

These were three kittens a cat my sister found had.

[Surya Gayatri]

12. Oh, teh squeeee! The mother looks so small!

[Archae]

13. She was.

Maybe it's the reason two of her kittens were stillborn.

But my sister and I found homes for all four.

[Surya Gayatri]

14. Well done. I hope they're all growing and happy.

[bongo_x]

15. I’m always amazed...

"YouTube has changed our world beyond all imaging in just 10 short years"

I can never get over the hyperbole around anything associated with the internet. The weird thing to me is that young people are so much worse about it when they didn’t actually know life before the internet. It’s pure comedy most of the time.

[IcyPeas]

16. I was introduced to YouTube here on DU...

someone posted some of the old TV Beatles cartoons. I was amazed and forwarded them to everyone. It was magic.

[awoke_in_2003]

17. Damn, time flies...

it seems like just yesterday that I enjoyed the greatness of the Netscape browser.

[romanic]

18. Can't believe it's only ten years old.

Feels like it's been around forever. :x