We'll Be Saying This About SICFIT.COM in 5yrs

 The YouTube (R)evolution Turns 5  

 

As YouTube reaches its fifth birthday, we take a look at how the site has changed life as we know it.

Rachel Sadon, PCWorld.com

Feb 14, 2010 5:00 am

Founded five years ago, YouTube is now a full-fledged grown-up by Internet standards. Its days as an impulsive startup--replete with a cluttered office located between a pizza parlor and a Japanese restaurant--are long gone; and is incredible growth over the past half-decade has changed how we live, play, and do business.
Within a single year, the overachieving startup rocketed from posting the first YouTube video (founder Jawed Karim talking about elephants at the zoo) to becoming an "independent subsidiary" of Google. Today, the site even has a corporate brand channel, which teaches users how to "advertise with YouTube and plan effective campaigns."
Here is a look at how these developments have changed our everyday lives--from creating instant celebrities to practicing citizen journalism to expanding the reach of campaign debates. Happy birthday and welcome to adulthood, YouTube.

 

The Customer Complaint

YouTube is changing how companies do business, often in ways that help consumers. Evidently, uploading a video complaint can dramatically increase your chances of avoiding the corporate runaround.
That's certainly what happened to Canadian musician Dave Carroll. He uploaded a music video he made entitled "United Breaks Guitars" in an effort to get the airline to pay for damages to his Taylor guitar by its luggage handlers at O'Hare Airport in Chicago. Lo and behold, the airline reversed its earlier position that it would not compensate Carroll, and instead offered $1200 to cover repair costs and a matching amount in flight vouchers.

 

Incriminating Evidence

Once upon a time, you could commit a crime or make an ass of yourself with the relative safety that only eyewitnesses could attest to your outlandish behavior.
Now you can be convicted in criminal court (like Anthony Horrocks, who was found guilty of possessing a prohibited firearm based on a YouTube video) or in the court of public opinion, as represented by passengers on a San Francisco Muni bus.

 

TV on the Internet

YouTube's early days were marked by numerous copyright infringement fights; complainants ranging from Prince to Viacom wanted in on the legal action. In an effort to appease upset content owners, the company tried various tactics--including deleting files, silencing videos, and implementing a length and size limit on video uploads. Nowadays, television is all over the Internet, and YouTube is coming up with ways to beat Hulu and other popular sites at the legal content game, including establishing a full-featured Shows section.

 

The Viral Video

The viral video was around long before YouTube was even a gleam in its founders' imaginations (the "Dancing Baby" viral video is often cited as one of the first of its tribe). But YouTube has raised virality (or maybe viruliferousness?) to an art form, with must-see videos seemingly debuting every week.
A few years back, if you missed watching an episode of Saturday Night Live on the boob tube, you were hopelessly out of the loop. Now, I'm on a Boat is one of the most watched clips on YouTube--alongside classics like Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager and the Christmas lights house.

Superstardom

Though the Internet has produced many superstars (here's a look at where some of them are now), it's hard to think of a site that has enabled more people to achieve insta-fame than YouTube has. There is even a Wikipedia entry for List of YouTube personalities.
Everyone has a favorite YouTube superstar--from the Evolution of Dance guy and the Numa Numa kid to Susan Boyle and VenetianPrincess.

 

Politics

The year 2008 has been widely acclaimed the year that the Internet changed campaign politics, and YouTube was at the epicenter of McCain/Obama drama.
According to the Pew Research Center, 2 percent of participants in its survey identified YouTube specifically as a place where they routinely obtained campaign news. The site also made the election markedly funnier (as evidenced by Crush on Obama, Barack roll, and the post-election turkey slaughter video featuring then-Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska). Perhaps most significantly, YouTube brought citizen users' questions to the Democratic primary debate.

 

The Music Video

With this week's announcement that MTV is removing music television from its logo, the music video has unmistakably moved online--to YouTube, specifically, where it has been residing unofficially for quite a while.
In fact, the third most watched clip of all time on the site is Miley Cyrus's video for "7 Things," which has garnered more than 110 million views.

 

The News

Like a host of other blogs and sites, YouTube has fostered the growing ranks of citizen journalists. It developed a "reporter's center" to educate aspiring YouTube journalists, and it entered into a partnership with the Pulitzer Center to recognize the best nonprofessional reporters.
Most recently, the site unveiled YouTube Direct, a platform which was designed to better integrate and redistribute clips from YouTube users to media organizations.

 

Conclusions

Ridiculous squirrel videos are hardly in the past, but YouTube's other accomplishments now tend to overshadow them. One of the most notable of these is the fact that, in the United States, more searches are done on YouTube than any other site besides Google itself. YouTube is also beginning a video rental service, it has unveiled 3D capabilities, it recently added HTML5 support, its site traffic surpassed a billion page views a day, and it underwent a design makeover.
But as for the success that matters most to a world starved for genuine culture... where else can you find Bret McKenzie from Flight of the Conchords performing "Hey Ya" with the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra?

CFFB

SWOD:

Front Squat 5x1 225, 245, 255, 265(pr), 275x2 fail both times
Bench 5x1 225, 225, 235, 235, 245f

Dead lift 5 RM 353# (pr)
Weighted Chin Ups 3 RM 87#(pr)

DWOD:

Complete 10 rounds:  2950m

Row for 1 minute, rest for 1 minute.

*Row for 1 minute as many meters as you can, rest one minute.
*Continue this cycle for a total of 20 minutes.
*Your score is the total amount of meters rowed - goal is row at least 3000 meters
*Penalty is 1 handstand push up for every 5 meters under 3000 meters.

(did 9 hspu in a row which is a pr + 1= 10 total)

Zsuzsanna Francia & Erin Cafaro - USA Rowing