YouTube
I was afraid this was going to happen. When I first heard about YouTube, I thought, if this turns out to be what I think it will, I'm going to be hooked. And I am.
First there were chat rooms, then improved search engines, then blogs, then Wikipedia... with each one, I thought, ah, so THIS is what the internet was created for.
Well, I was wrong. Obviously, the internet was created for YouTube. This clearing house for video clips both famous and obscure is the greatest and most addictive thing to hit the internet since, um, Wikipedia. In fact, you could almost call it the Wikipedia of video clips.
The most apparent similarity is that YouTube depends on people like you and me to send in these clips and the response has been phenomenal. News clips, bloopers, music videos, political speeches... you name it.
Yesterday, for example, I had a blast searching out obscure songs, musical performances and videos I had only read about and had, for all intents and purposes, given up hope of ever actually seeing. There was only one I couldn't find on YouTube. That's pretty damn impressive, if you ask me.
The thing has always been, once a document of some sort has been created, we all know it exists somewhere, in some form, and that somebody somewhere has access to it. But how does the average schmuck like you or me get to see it? Enter YouTube. It's like a video Library of Congress on the internet, even better really. Do they even have a clip of the Monkees titled 'Listen to the Band- Pyschedelic Freak Out' in the Library of Congress? Somehow I doubt it.
I could spend hours going through this site and I'm sure I probably will. Hooray YouTube!
First there were chat rooms, then improved search engines, then blogs, then Wikipedia... with each one, I thought, ah, so THIS is what the internet was created for.
Well, I was wrong. Obviously, the internet was created for YouTube. This clearing house for video clips both famous and obscure is the greatest and most addictive thing to hit the internet since, um, Wikipedia. In fact, you could almost call it the Wikipedia of video clips.
The most apparent similarity is that YouTube depends on people like you and me to send in these clips and the response has been phenomenal. News clips, bloopers, music videos, political speeches... you name it.
Yesterday, for example, I had a blast searching out obscure songs, musical performances and videos I had only read about and had, for all intents and purposes, given up hope of ever actually seeing. There was only one I couldn't find on YouTube. That's pretty damn impressive, if you ask me.
The thing has always been, once a document of some sort has been created, we all know it exists somewhere, in some form, and that somebody somewhere has access to it. But how does the average schmuck like you or me get to see it? Enter YouTube. It's like a video Library of Congress on the internet, even better really. Do they even have a clip of the Monkees titled 'Listen to the Band- Pyschedelic Freak Out' in the Library of Congress? Somehow I doubt it.
I could spend hours going through this site and I'm sure I probably will. Hooray YouTube!
posted by gbj at 9:27 AM
1 Comments:
I'm hooked, too -- not on the homegrown videos but on being able to find clips I didn't expect to see again so easily -- from SNL, AbFab, AFV, and Chappelle (his skit about Tupac's 'new' song, and "The Monsters: The System Isn't Designed For Us" are priceless).
I use it in my online classes, too -- easy way to share clips.
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