Millions of people use YouTube every day for entertainment, education, or inspiration. With its headquarters in San Bruno, California, YouTube is an American social media and internet video sharing company. On February 14, 2005, Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim officially debuted it.
After Google Search, it is the second-most visited website and is owned by Google. More than 2.5 billion people use YouTube each month, and they view over a billion hours of video every day. More than 500 hours of video were uploaded per minute of video as of May 2019.
The majority of material is created by one person, including partnerships between YouTubers and business sponsors. To reach a wider audience for advertising, well-known media companies like Disney, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Discovery have however established and grown their respective corporate YouTube pages.
Remarkable social change has been brought about by YouTube, which has influenced internet trends, popular culture, and the rise of billionaire superstars. Despite its expansion and popularity, YouTube has drawn a lot of flak.
YouTube has come under fire for facilitating the spreading of false information, copyright breaches, systematic invasions of user privacy, supporting censorship, and compromising the safety and wellness of children.
YouTube public dislike count removal (2021–present)
YouTube deleted the public display of dislikes numbers on videos in November 2021 after testing it earlier in 2021. The company said the removal was necessary because, according to its internal research, users frequently exploited the dislike function as a form of cyberbullying.
While some users applauded the action as a means of reducing trolls, others said that removing dislikes could make it more difficult for viewers to identify misleading or harmful videos and that additional options were already available for producers to prevent bullying.
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki admitted that the removal of public dislike numbers was a contentious choice, but she repeated that she stood by this choice, arguing that “it decreased dislike assaults” in a letter that was released on January 25, 2022.
Features
Video technology
YouTube largely employs the Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP protocol, together with the VP9 and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video codecs. For connections with low bandwidth, MPEG-4 Part 2 streams enclosed in 3GP containers are further offered.
In order to improve compatibility, smooth playing in regions and nations with slow Internet, and preserve limited cellular data plans, the platform may optionally stream films at lower quality levels starting at 144p.
According to the observed connection speed, the resolution setting may be manually modified or adjusted automatically.
Uploading
All YouTube users have the ability to submit videos that are up to 15 minutes long. Users may submit films up to 12 hours long and create live broadcasts by verifying their accounts, often with a mobile device.
The maximum video size is 256 GB, or 12 hours, whichever is lower. As of 2021, when a video is published, automated closed captions incorporating voice recognition technology are accessible in 13 languages and may be automatically translated while the video is playing.
YouTube’s creator studio also has manual closed captioning. Community Captions, a tool that allowed users to develop and upload captions for public display once the video uploader approved them, was formerly available on YouTube but was abandoned in September 2020.
Formats and quality
There are many quality levels of YouTube videos. The video quality is only somewhat influenced by viewers. Users have the option of selecting “Auto” on the mobile apps, which changes resolution dependent on the internet access, “High Picture Quality” to prioritize playing high-quality visuals, “Data Saver” to forego video quality in favor of sparing data use, and “Advanced” to specify the stream resolution.
Users using desktop computers can select “Auto” or a particular resolution. The viewer cannot directly pick a higher quality for any chosen resolution.
Live Streaming
U2’s performance in 2009 and US President Barack Obama’s question-and-answer session in February 2010 were two early live streaming tests conducted by YouTube.
These experiments previously utilized third-party partners’ technology, but starting in September 2010, YouTube started experimenting with its own live streaming network. YouTube announced the launch of YouTube Live in April 2011. Initially, only a few partners were allowed to create live feeds.
Real-time coverage of events like the London Olympics in 2012 was carried out using it. In October 2012, over 8 million people witnessed Felix Baumgartner’s fall from the space station as a live feed on YouTube.
User Features
Comment system
Users may usually make comments on videos, and those remarks have drawn attention for the flaws in both their content and form. Time said in 2006 that Web 2.0 had made it possible for “community and cooperation on a scale never seen before,” and that YouTube “harnesses the foolishness of crowds as much as its wisdom.”
Even without considering the obscenity and the apparent hostility, certain comments on YouTube make you cry for the future of humanity.
In order to prevent spam, creators can also decide whether to preserve or remove comments that contain links or hashtags. They can also let other users control the comments they make.
According to a rumor, YouTube will introduce a new feature in December 2020 that would alert users when they publish comments that “may be objectionable to others.”
Community
Community, a social media tool that allows users to submit text, photos (including GIFs), live videos, and other content in a distinct “Community” page on their channel, was made available to the general public on September 13, 2016, on YouTube.
After the function is formally launched, every channel that exceeds a certain subscriber count threshold or has more subscribers seems to have the community post function automatically active. Over time, this criterion decreased from 10,000 subscribers to 1500 subscribers, 1000 subscribers to 500 subscribers, and so forth.
The channel conversations (formerly known as channel comments) on channels for which the community tab is enabled are permanently deleted rather than coexisting or moving.
User Experience
Based on the user’s IP address, the YouTube interface proposes a local version to use. Because of copyright limitations or unsuitable material, the notification “This video is not accessible in your country” may occasionally show.
Amharic, Albanian, Armenian, Burmese, Kyrgyz, Mongolian, Persian, and Uzbek are among the 76 languages supported by the YouTube website’s interface but do not have local channel versions.
Between 2008 and 2010, Turkey’s access to YouTube was prohibited due to controversies surrounding the publication of films considered harmful to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and certain materials considered offensive to Muslims.
Videos
In comparison to the four or five hours a day that the average US citizen spends watching television, it was estimated in January 2012 that YouTube users spent only 15 minutes per day on the website. In 2017, users spent more than an hour a day on average watching YouTube on their mobile devices.
Copyright issues
In its efforts to deal with copyright, YouTube has come up against several obstacles and critiques. For example, the site’s first popular video, Lazy Sunday, had to be removed because of copyright issues.
YouTube users are prompted with a warning not to break copyright rules when they submit a video.
Despite this caution, YouTube nevertheless hosts a large number of unlawful clips of copyrighted content. It is up to copyright holders to send a DMCA takedown notice in accordance with the rules of the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act as YouTube does not screen videos before they are placed online.
A YouTube copyright strike arises from any successful copyright infringement claim. A user account and all of its submitted videos will be removed if three successful copyright infringement complaints against it are filed.
Viacom, Mediaset, and the English Premier League are just a few of the entities that have sued YouTube between 2007 and 2009, alleging that it hasn’t done enough to stop the uploading of pirated content.
Content ID
Trials of a system for automatically identifying uploaded videos that violate copyright started on YouTube in June 2007. Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, believed that this method was essential for settling legal disputes like the one bought by Viacom, which claimed that YouTube made money off of content that it did not have a right to distribute.
The technology, which at first went by the name “For copyrighted audio and video, “Video Identification”, which subsequently went by the name “Content ID,” produces an ID File and saves it in a database.
When a video is posted, the video is verified against the databases, and if a match is discovered, the video is flagged as a copyright violation. When this happens, the content owner has the option of banning the video to make it unwatchable, monitoring the video’s watching trends, or integrating adverts into the video.
Modesty and Offensive Content
In order to prevent misuse of YouTube’s capabilities, the site includes a set of community rules. YouTube’s terms of service prohibit the posting of videos that are defamatory, pornographic, or promote illegal activity “Community Regulations.
Sexually explicit content, animal cruelty films, shock videos, materials published without the owner’s permission, hateful speech, spamming, and predatory activity are all examples of generally forbidden content.
YouTube depends on its users to report videos with objectionable content, and an employee will review a flagged video to see if it breaks the site’s rules.
Despite the rules, YouTube has come under fire for some aspects of its operations, including how its recommendation algorithms support videos that spread untruths and conspiracy theories, how it hosts videos that appear to be for children but actually contain violent or sexually explicit content starring well-known characters, how videos of children attract pedophilic activity in their comments threads, and how its policies on the kinds of content that can be monetized with advertisements change over time.
When content is detected as possibly breaking YouTube’s content regulations, firms are hired by YouTube to employ content moderators who then review the video and decide whether it has to be deleted.
A detailed guideline detailing how it intends to handle technically modified videos has been released by YouTube in an effort to reduce the spread of misleading info and fake news across the platform.
Services
Premium YouTube
YouTube’s premium membership service is called YouTube Premium (formerly known as YouTube Red). It provides access to original programmes, ad-free streaming, and mobile device offline and background video playback.
Initially introduced as “Music Key” on November 12, 2014, YouTube Premium was meant to replace and connect with the already-existing Google Play Music “All Access” service.
The platform was relaunched as YouTube Red on October 28, 2015, providing ad-free viewing of all videos as well as accessibility to the exclusive original content. The service has 1.5 million customers as of November 2016 and another million were free trial users.
By the end of June 2017, 250 million people had watched the entire first season of YouTube Originals.
Youtube Kids
The American children’s video app YouTube Kids was created by YouTube, a division of Google. In response to government and parent inspection of the kid-friendly content accessible, the app was created.
With customized content selections, parental control options, and screening of videos deemed improper watching for children under 13, 8, or 5, based on the age grouping selected, the app offers a version of the site geared towards children.
The app was first made available on February 15, 2015, for Android and iOS mobile devices. Since then, it has also been made available for Android TV, LG, Samsung, and Sony smart TVs. It was made accessible on Apple TV on May 27, 2020.
The app is accessible as of September 2019 in 69 nations, including one province and Hong Kong and Macau. On August 30, 2019, YouTube introduced a web-based version of YouTube Kids.
YouTube Music
On September 28, 2016, YouTube appointed Lyor Cohen, a former executive at Warner Music Group and co-founder of 300 Entertainment, as the Global Head of Music.
Early in 2018, Cohen started to tease the potential debut of YouTube’s upcoming paid music streaming service, a system that would go up against rivals like Spotify and Apple Music. YouTube Music, a music streaming service, went live on May 22, 2018.
YouTube Movies
Through its website, YouTube Movies provides a service for streaming movies. You may watch 100–500 movies for free with commercials. Unannounced additions and deletions of movies occur every month.
YouTube TV
In a press conference held at YouTube Space Los Angeles on February 28, 2017, YouTube launched YouTube TV, an over-the-top MVPD-style subscription plan that will be offered to American customers for US$65 per month.
The service, which debuted on April 5, 2017, was initially available in five major markets. It offers live streams of content from the five major broadcast networks as well as 40 cable channels that are possessed by the firm ’s operations of those channels, The Walt Disney Company, CBS Corporation, 21st Century Fox, NBCUniversal, and Turner Broadcasting System.
In addition to accessing YouTube Premium original content, subscribers may purchase Showtime and Fox Soccer Plus as optional add-ons.
YouTube Go
An Android software called YouTube Go was developed to make YouTube more accessible on mobile devices in developing nations. It allowed users to download and share videos, and it was different from the company’s primary Android app.
Additionally, it gave customers greater options for managing their mobile data and video resolution, as well as the ability to preview films and share downloaded media through Bluetooth. Google stated in May 2022 that YouTube Go will be discontinued in August of that same year.
At a gathering in India in September 2016, YouTube made the project announcement. In November 2017, it was introduced in 14 additional nations, namely Nigeria, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Kenya, and South Africa. It was first introduced in India in February 2017.
On February 1, 2018, it was launched in 130 nations throughout the world, including Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, and Iraq.
The app was accessible to almost 60% of the worldwide people before it was shut off.
YouTube Shorts
YouTube said it would be releasing a test version of YouTube Shorts, a new platform for 15-second videos that is comparable to TikTok, in September 2020.
The platform was initially trialed in India, but as of March 2021, it has been made available in several nations, including the United States. Videos are now capable of lasting up to one minute. The platform is included into the main YouTube app rather than being as a separate application.
Similar to TikTok, it provides users with exposure to built-in design tools, including the option to use authorized music in their movies. In July 2021, the platform’s global beta launch took place.
YouTube Stories
A new tool that was originally tested by YouTube in 2018 was termed “YouTube Reels.” The function is quite similar to Snapchat and Instagram Stories. Later, YouTube changed the feature name to “YouTube Stories”. It can only be posted or viewed via the YouTube mobile app and is only accessible to producers with more than 10,000 followers.