YouTube Turns 10: The Moments We Never Imagined
How the video sharing website has changed since its first video was posted.
— -- It all began with a video of a man and some elephants.
Ten years later, YouTube has turned into a billion dollar video sharing juggernaut and one of the most visited websites on the Internet.
"Me at the Zoo," the first video ever posted to YouTube, featured one of the video-sharing site's founders, Jawed Karim, standing near elephants. A decade later the short but sweet video has racked up nearly 20 million views.
In celebration of YouTube's 10th year in existence, here are ten moments we never dreamed would have been possible until YouTube came along and changed the landscape of how people watch, create and share online videos:
Anyone Can Be a Star
Look no further than Bethany Mota, whose beauty videos are so popular on YouTube that it landed her a spot on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."
Whether it's singing, dancing, a cooking show or pulling stunts like bathing in cereal (we're talking about you, GloZell Green) anyone with a niche can find and grow a following.
They'd Host An Interview With the President
Mota, Green and Hank Green got the opportunity to grill President Obama last month on issues important to them and their audiences. The interview was streamed live on YouTube.
Huge Repository of Video
People are hungrier than ever for online video. YouTube said more than 300 hours of content is uploaded to its site every minute.
Embarrassing Moments Live Forever
Everyone has a camera now making it easier than ever to capture moments on the fly -- no matter how embarrassing.
Make Money From Your Home Videos
The people behind YouTube's most viral videos can take home a huge pay day thanks. Who can ever forget the adorable "Charlie bit my finger" kids?
Movie Moments
It's insanely easy to dig up favorite moments from many old TV shows and movies.
It's the New Office Water Cooler
Instead of congregating around the coffee maker and water machine, we now huddle up at a colleague's computer to check out the latest cute cat video.
Learn How to Do Anything
You can learn to do almost anything -- whether it's hair, make-up or even the proper way to open a bottle of beer.
We Watch Videos on Our Smartphones
Let this marinate with your 2005 self: Half of all views on YouTube now come from mobile devices.
Billion Dollar Business
When Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006, many people were wondering if the search giant had wildly overpaid for the site. Today, the website is said to be valued as high as $40 billion. Good call, Google.