You Tube

You Tube

YouTube – what’s it all about then?

You may, or may not, have heard people talking about “YouTube” and wondered what they are on about, you know its something to do with computers and the Internet and perhaps something to do with video but other than that you have no idea – well this month we will look at the phenomenon that is www.youtube.com

According to Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia, (www.wikipedia.org) YouTube is “a popular video sharing website where users can upload, view, and share video clips”.

YouTube was created in February 2005 by three former employees of PayPal, the online money transfer site.

YouTube is essentially an archive of videos, everything from home produced, low quality stuff through to very high quality professional level media.  Every topic that you can think of is available to view at YouTube, you can find comedy from the likes of Ricky Gervais or The Simpsons through to news and politics from broadcasters like CNN.

Other categories include, but are not limited to music, sports, pets and animals, gadgets, games and “how to… & DIY”, this final section has video tutorials on everything from leaning Spanish to Swahili and much much more besides.

All of the video’s at YouTube are free to download, although having a broadband connection is advisable, they will still play on a dial up connection if that’s all you have – just be prepared to wait a while.

One of the funniest I have seen recently is www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fT-jX11poU

I’m afraid you have to type the whole thing in, but its well worth it.  The video is of a prank call from a young Irish girl who calls a demolition company and requests they destroy her school, its very funny and totally true, its a real hoot!

Of course if you are a budding director yourself and have something that you would like to contribute then creating an account and uploading your video is pretty easy as well.  Simply click on the “Sign Up” link at the top of the YouTube page and complete the form.

After you’ve registered you will be able to upload your own masterpieces for others to view and rate.

Yes, once you are registered you can rate any of the video’s you watch, giving them a star rating out of 5, this helps to show othe viewers which videos are the most popular.