WASHINGTON — This month marks the 10th anniversary of YouTube, which now claims more than 1 billion viewers in 75…
Don’t tase me, bro: What happened after 21-year-old mass communication student Andrew Meyer asked a question of U.S. Senator John Kerry, on September 17, 2007.
‘Lazy Sunday’ on SNL: Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell’s music video was the second Digital Short in Saturday Night Live’s history. The show’s writers reportedly were worried about how the video would be received.
How it all began: The first video ever uploaded to YouTube was an 18-second clip by the site’s co-founder Jawed Karim.
We so excited: When Rebecca Black’s debut single and video were released in March 2011, it was quickly dubbed “the worst video ever made.” Black acknowledged the comments hurt and shocked her, but Black weathered the viral debate, and eventually “Friday” was covered on Glee.
Reality TV before Periscope and Meerkat: By the time Jennifer Ringley was on David Letterman in 1998, she had already been livestreaming her life for two years on her JenniCam website. Viewers saw all aspects of life in Ringley’s bedroom. She shut down her site in 2003, because her site violated PayPal’s anti-nudity policy.
Leave Britney alone!: When wailing Britney Spears superfan Chris Crocker demanded respect for the performer after her comeback performance on the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, his video had over four million views in two days. (Language is NSFW)
Today show oops moment: When NBC’s Today show reporter Michelle Kosinski decided to do a live report on flooding from a canoe, in October 2005, she didn’t realize what could go wrong, or that people would still be watching it almost 10 years later.
The first cute cat video: The first cat video to go viral was “Puppy vs. Cat” in May 2006, but the first cat video ever posted was a year earlier, by YouTube co-founder Steve Chen.
Um, what?: Caitlin Upton’s answer to a question in the 2007 Miss Teen USA Pageant had viewers scratching their heads and searching YouTube. This was YouTube’s most viewed video for the month of September 2007. Watch host Mario Lopez struggle to keep a straight face.
And the big winner is…: “Gangnam Style’ by Psy is the most viewed YouTube video of all time. Uploaded July 15, 2012 it’s been watched more than 2 billion times, which is more than twice as many as second biggest YouTube video, “Baby,” by Justin Bieber featuring Ludacris.
WASHINGTON — This month marks the 10th anniversary of YouTube, which now claims more than 1 billion viewers in 75 countries.
The video-sharing site’s first posting was on April 23, 2005, featuring an 18-second clip of YouTube’s co-founder at the San Diego Zoo, in front of the elephant exhibit.
Since then, YouTube has been home to everything from shaky home movies to fully produced movies.
Neal Augenstein has been a general assignment reporter with WTOP since 1997. He says he looks forward to coming to work every day, even though that means waking up at 3:30 a.m.
