Youtube

Ahh Youtube, one of the most innovative websites to ever hit the internet, has changed the face of video based media forever. This website, created in February of 2005, has given the common people the power of mass media, by allowing them to upload videos from their home computer. Inventors Chad Hurley, and Steve Chen got the idea after struggling to share videos from a dinner party with their co-workers. From a fledgling 4-5 videos, the internet super site now boasts 6.1 million videos, and has grown from 58,000 views per month last year to 20 million today. Youtube has grown to be the internet's top 5 most viewed website, and theres no wonder why. Videos can range from guitar tutorials, vlogs (video blogs), and amazing things caught on tape, as well as clips of older TV shows, and everything in between. Big time networks such as ABC, NBC, and CBS are also taking advantage of youtube's massive audience by posting their own videos, and even bonus content that cant be seen on TV. Even President Barack Obama has his own page where he broadcasts videos of important topics, and issues. Technology based buisnesses have recently suffered a decline in productivity due to their employees spending to much time on watching videos. Youtube has also been studied very closely by sociologists, psychologists, and even mathmaticians over many phenomenons. The most commonly studied subject is "herding", where experts make theories on the reasons for why some videos become heavily viewed, and others not at all. Riley Crane, a mathmatician at the University of California has found that only 10% of all videos on youtube are viewed 100 or more times a day. Of this 10% he seperates the videos into 3 catagories, "junk", viral, and quality. The junk category indicates successful videos that have no significance, or interesting aspects at all, a good example would be the lonelygirl series. Viral videos is defined by anything that is passed on either through other websites or email. The quality group is alot like viral videos, but instead of a gradual increase of views, there is a sudden spike of interest.

More of this theory can be explained at YouTube Usage Decoded.
Heres a list of YouTube's most viewed videos ever

Search Engines

Ah search engines, it seems as if now a days all the knowledge of the world is at your finger tips. Thanks to websites such as google, yahoo, and ask you can instantly find the answers to all of life's questions. Whether it be Babe Ruth's batting average in middle school, or the definition of quantum physics, you will find it all. Google, the largest search engine, and top 5 most viewed websites on the internet attracts nearly 10 million hits a day! Its amazing to think how far finding information has come over the years. My mom often reminds me of the days where her only resource was a text book, now we search the internet regardless of if we have a book or not. It is not to hard to believe that one day books will be obsolete, because of how convenient the web has made finding information. Yahoo, the second largest search engine boasts a 20+ billion page search area, Googles however is so large, the actual figure is unknown. I dont know where i would be today with out the use of the internet. My hatred for books could have kept me from going to college, but now that i have the internet at my side, i feel that anything is possible.

Online Gaming

In the early to mid 1990's, computer gaming was just beginning to blossom with the addition of games such as warcraft, doom, and Diablo 1 & 2. The idea of linking multiple computers, to play against each other in the same game was just starting to take off. Online multiplayer games were not popular until 2001, when Medal of Honor, and Battlefeild 1942 came out. Thousands of players from across the globe were coming together to compete in virtual warzones of up to 16 people. These early games often provided terrible connectivity, which made the games slow, and even "lag". Over the years, technology has drastically improved the standards, and speed of gaming, and has brought in an even larger crowd. Today, online gaming is dominated by the "MMORPG" genre. Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, such as World of Warcraft, and Everquest, support gamers in the millions. These games are usuallybased in a fantasy setting, where players take control of one character, and progress them through a leveling system by killing monsters and completing quests. This phenomenon has showed the first signs of a "virtual addiction" the world has ever seen. World of Warcraft has known to cause depression, divorce, and even death! Thats right a 28 year old man in Beijing, China died after playing WOW for 3 days straight. This is not the only instance either. A woman, also from China, was said to have died after 7 days of non-stop gaming. The link below shows a funeral her friends had for her on the game, that was bombarded by a group of her enemies. This video just goes to show how serious online gaming has become, and what can happen when you dont limit yourself from things as harmless as videogames.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TSGUf1xbF8