Just one visit to the Web’s latest “It” site can serve up a most weird and wonderful visual feast. On the menu one recent workday:
The controversial Scientology-themed, Tom Cruise-spoofing “Trapped in the Closet” episode of South Park. (So controversial that Comedy Central has refused to re-air it.)
Fort Worth’s Landmark Tower implosion.
An all-time favorite skit from the old “Electric Company” children’s TV show.
Jon Stewart’s opening monologue to the Oscars, plus the “gay Western” montage.
Some dude sitting in his bedroom playing Pachelbel’s Canon in D on electric guitar.
A monkey doing karate.
This is YouTube (www.youtube.com), an explosively popular video sharing site that’s taking the Internet by storm, much like Napster did a cyber-generation ago, and sitting pretty on the fringe of a 21st-century culture shift.
Even in the warp speed of the digital age, the pace of YouTube’s rocket into the zeitgeist is astounding. It’s gone from pipsqueak to major media player in what feels like 60 seconds flat.
It was a smart idea that caught a wave at the right time, and now it’s giddily feeding a few of our most human cravings: the urge to share, connect and see it for ourselves.
Instead of you telling me about the great bit you saw on “The Daily Show” last week, give me the link so I can check it out on my own.
Once a relatively off-the-map site known largely for goofy amateur video offerings, YouTube vaulted into our consciousness several months ago on the strength of a video clip called “Lazy Sunday,” a hilarious “Saturday Night Live” digital short film.
The site got even more traction several few weeks ago when e-mail inboxes across the country were pelted with YouTube links to the clever, live-action version of “The Simpsons” opening theme.
These two little time-wasters are what’s known as “viral video” – a clip so funny or must-see that it spreads from user to user through cyberspace with the speed of a virus. (But without the nasty ramifications of a virus.)
Among mainstream media outlets, the viral video craze has spawned both legal animosity and if-you-can’t-beat-’em-join- ’em-style collaboration.
Certainly, YouTube doesn’t have a monopoly on viral video. More and more sites now offer video sharing: Google, Yahoo, AOL and MSN all offer the service, as does a site called iFilm.
But none of them can claim the runaway success of YouTube, which, for the week ending March 25 had three times more traffic than Google Video and Yahoo Video, and four times that of AOL Video, according to Hitwise, an Internet tracking firm. As of Friday evening, Alexa, a site that tracks online traffic, had YouTube ranked at No. 27 in their top 100 English language sites – above Net powerhouses like Weather.com (No. 31), MapQuest (33) and Match.com (40).
Why? First, it’s done for video sharing what LiveJournal and Blogger did for blogs: make it freakishly easy to use. A free YouTube account doesn’t have as many hurdles as some other sites. You can be uploading and sharing video within minutes of wandering onto the site.
Also, for the slightly more Web-savvy, it’s possible to insert a YouTube video onto a blog, Web page or a MySpace profile.
Because the site is largely peer-to-peer sharing, and not owned by a behemoth like Viacom (iFilm’s owner), YouTube’s vast library includes a combination of user-created content and copyrighted clips.
Casual YouTube visitors may initially find it difficult to find much meaningful content on YouTube. If you just browse around aimlessly – even in the site’s Most Viewed clips – you might get the idea that perhaps it’s nothing more than a vast landfill of randomness, loserdom and the occasional foray into amateur porn.
After watching a couple of guys do the robot, a high school boy imitate his mother reading his report card and some kid do finger breakdancing for a very looong 55 seconds, you have to wonder: Is this all there is? Unfortunately for your workplace productivity, that answer would be a big “No.” The key is to know what you’re looking for. Are you a “West Wing” fan who missed the scene a few episodes ago where Josh and Donna finally locked lips? Go to the search field, type in “west wing josh donna,” and the scene pops up. Of course, you won’t be able to find everything you’re looking for, but the range of stuff available is nothing short of mind-boggling.
You can find everything from some of your favorite “Sesame Street” segments (“Ladybug Picnic!”) to the brilliant six-minute ending sequence from the series finale of “Six Feet Under” to the Dead Kennedys doing “Holiday in Cambodia,” circa 1982.
So YouTube has not only become a colossal stage for amateur filmmakers, animators, parodists and all the world’s random weirdos, but has also fashioned itself into an archive of pop culture, one of the coolest nostalgia trips ever.
And it’s only getting bigger.
The idea came about in January 2005, when founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen found they couldn’t send video to friends via e-mail because the file was too big.
The California-based site launched in November. Three months ago, YouTube had about 3 million videos being viewed per day, 8,000 being uploaded per day.
