Youtube, it sounds like a train station or something for youths with attitude problems (YOB's)! It sounds like a youth thing! Something that is banned or not really acceptable. However, Youtube is one the most brilliant inventions on the internet. It can be used to watch or upload videos and chat to your friends. It is used in schools, and to learn to knit and play the piano. How has it become a part of our lives and is it all roses???
===HOW IT STARTED===
Youtube was created in February 2005, by three former PayPal workers. It was then bought in November 2006 by Google for $1.65 billion (around £1 billion, then in 2006). It uses Adobe Flash technology to show videos online. The idea was developed at a dinner party at which the three founders attended and were discussing how difficult it was to share videos online. Then three (two of which were computer scientist graduates and the third founder studied design. (So not something to try in your lunch break!)
FINDING THE SITE
Youtube is an easy site to find, it is not the most obvious as it is .com, not .co.uk; however ,this only a small detail. It is first on
Google search and is top on all of the other
search engines as it has millions of viewers daily. It loads, quickly and
easily, and I have never encountered any difficulties in the loading of the site and the navigation to find it. The site is also normally even with small spelling mistakes.
THE SITE
The Youtube site is red and white in colours with a white background, and the red Youtube logo. It looks quite like Google (probably because the site is owned by them), with the large white space colourful logo and minimalistic style. The
home page is litter with videos organised into different
categories, such as "Most Popular", "Being watched now" and "Sponsored
Videos". The site is easy to navigate and has a search bar at the top. It has a logo on the top left hand side and a simple, plain lay-out. It has a large selection of videos from anything from
music to home - made random 5 second long clips. It also has an online community where members sign up to rate videos, make videos, chat to friends and report abuse.
THE USES
The most common use of Youtube is watching videos and these videos can be used for a million and one different things, here are just some that I know of:Classroom lessons in school: This is really interesting as in my little brother's school they use this site for lessons. It has been banned in non-lesson times but is used in lesson time. Some of the lessons I know of are art where some of the amazing animation videos have been used they have been shown to the class to encourage them with their animation art project. It has also been used to show adverts for English lessons, as part as a persuasive language topic the class has been learning about adverts and the language of advertising and it has been used to show adverts easily and give easy and accessible demonstrations that the pupils can then access if asked to do any homework and are stuck.
I also know that they are perfect in class as they are always under ten minutes long, however even when they end i know my brother and his class are always desperate to watch more! It is a great resource for schools and teachers, there are clips on animals, charities, saving the planet and amazingly cool explosive science experiments!
Listening to Music: All manner of music videos: official, sideshows, home made etc. have been posted on Youtube and it has been a great source for people who would like to listen to music before they buy. It is also a great way of promoting songs as a song's successfulness is often also judged by how many hits it has had on Youtube now! The music videos are generally of good quality however some of them are not the best quality and get stuck due to large file sizes this can be very annoying and if you have
headphones in it will really hurt your ears. So watch out for the videos that look bad quality.
Teaching people to knit: There are many great videos, all explaining and showing you exactly how to knit; from the simple stages of casting on to pearling and whole long instructions on how to knit certain garments. Such as jumpers! The videos are very clear and very well shot, especially with the most hits as they are rated the best. I would recommend trying this, for anyone who is stuck in for a boring weekend.
Learning to play the piano: For this task some knowledge of the piano has to be there as they will teach you certain songs but not show you exactly how to learn to play the piano. I would
recommend getting a teacher if this is something you would like to do. However, their is a large selection of videos on learning specific songs on the piano. There are all the classics and some modern ones as well. So if anyone would like to while the time away and has some basic understanding of the piano then this if a big hit.
Getting talent scouted: Many artists posted on Myspace to get a record deal. Well now people are posting on Youtube as well. They are singing, playing the guitar or piano, dancing and every other known talent in the world as well. It is ever so funny - like watching Britain's got Talent only 10 x funnier. However it can get very boring if someone is not bad or mediocre as they are not awful and cannot be laughed at yet they are not good enough to make people say WOW!
Home made movies/ animations: Some wanna be directors post their "films" on Youtube as a way of getting good practice, comments off people and
feed-back. Again, like with most videos on Youtube there is varying ranges of standards from the very bad to the very good, however these can again be very boring and some never have anyone watch them. However, some of the animations are very clever, but they must've taken hours of work because they are drawn clip by clip it takes thousands to make a two minute video! So I prefer to watch the animations because they take so much more effort to make.
The weird and wonderful: Any young person who has ever been bored, stuck or fed-up has posted something on Youtube.
Whether be a householddomino express (one of my endeavours with some friends!) or a poetry recital or making their dog dance. Their is some weird things on Youtube, along with some wonderful, ones. Watch out for these as they tend to clog up some good videos and rate fairly, if it was awful don't rate 5/5 because it was a friend of a friend's mate! As the higher rates the rubbish videos get the less viewings the good ones get, which is really unfair for people who have worked hard.
Singing Lessons or just about anything: If you need to learn how to do anything in a short amount of time then Youtube is brilliant. It will help you to learn to sing, sew on a button, build a cardboard rocket, make a model of
Buckingham Palace or know the words to God Save the Queen then Youtube will help you do it. From the odd and the unusual to normal and sane help. Youtube offers a large amount of videos and it can help you if you are tuck in any situation.
HAPPY SLAPPING
Youtube has been on the news quite often, will the issues of Happy Slapping being posted on the site. One of the most noted incidents was of X factor entrant Emily Nakanda when she was spotted Happy Slapping on Youtube. This is a bit of an issue as there has been a few incidents of Happy Slapping videos making their way onto Youtube. They are not to be found if just browsing particular videos (or very rarely) however they are sometimes put on then removed. However it is down to viewers to deem whether they are suitable or not and flag them unsuitable however, people are still putting them on and it usually takes at least for them to be removed.
Under 18's
There also is quite a few people putting videos of a slightly pornographic nature on according to Youtube's site. They say that their is a limit for people without accounts or with accounts that state they are under 18 and they are not allowed to watch the videos that have been flagged unsuitable for under 18's. I do not know what this is like as I have not tried it, however it does seem to be quite responsible for Youtube.
*UPDATE*
Youtube's age restriction is actually slightly easier than first thought to by pass as you just press a button to say you are over 18! This is a lot worse than first thought, as it means that unsuitable videos are easy for everyone to access.
ACCOUNTS
Youtube works like any other account where people can chat to each other. They can message when two account holders are online. They can share videos, chat between three or more people. An account holder can comment on videos, make videos, rate videos, flag videos, chat to friends, you can make a fun
home-page, add friends, send and receive
e-mails and create play lists and do video logs.
The idea of the accounts is supposed to mean that nobody under 18 has one so they can watch the more adult content videos. However this is quite easy to by pass as many people under 18 lie and say they are over. Unfortunately there is not much Youtube can do about this.
NEW TUBE
Youtube have recently added some new features to New changes to Youtube they were:
Youtube in HD.
Watch your Youtube videos in High Definition, clear more accurate and a lot easier to see things such as how to knit
Youtube on your TV! Watch Youtube through your TV to gain the full watching experience. This may be a little pointless but it seems cool from a free site for FREE!
Youtube Charity: Youtube Non-Profit program means that if you are a charity or need to tell a compelling story you are now allowed to do it on Youtube if you do not have the funds to put out a big campaign (this is the sort of thing that is helpful for parents with missing children).
THE GOOD
Easy to watch.
Good videos to help with everything.
Appeals to a wide range of audiences.
Has a flagging system for unsuitable videos.
THE BAD
It takes a long time to remove horrible videos.
Can be a little slow loading videos.
Is easy to by pass the under 18 age barrier
CONCLUSION
I think that Youtube is a really good site with a good aim. It is mostly good and 98 % of the videos are good for everyone. It has great aims and has really helped me out on a couple of occasions. It is a great for schools, work and if you are bored. You can do anything with it. It is the ultimate saviour both for boredom and other things. Thanks for Reading,
Lots of Love and Smiles,
Ratty :¬)
New Tubed 
