It’s hard to believe that just a century ago, YouTube was a fledgling video site for paupers and presidents alike. Today, we celebrate 100 years of YouTube, and we thought we would reflect on our inaugural year with a re-print of our first blog post from 1911. In honor of this milestone, today’s homepage is a reproduction of how you might have viewed it 100 years ago. Check out some of the most popular videos of the time and be sure to try out our new upload mode which summons a horse-drawn carriage to pick up your video submission from your home. Here’s to another epoch of great video!
April 1911Editor’s note: Welcome to YouTube! Today we’re honored to have President William Howard Taft as our guest blogger to celebrate our official site launch.
Ladies and gentlemen of these United States. We are living in an age in which, by exaggeration of the defects of our present condition, by false charges and responsibility for it against individuals and classes, by holding up to the feverish imagination of the less fortunate and the discontented the possibilities of a millennium, a condition of popular unrest has been produced.
Due to advancements in modern technology and the advent of
the Edison kinetoscope, there is hope. And I venture to say that there is no other destination on the web which has taken more real steps of such progress than the YouTubes, making its debut today. Here,
instantaneous expression of the people may be upheld.
Great feats of strength may be honored! Here,
industry may thrive and
cinema appreciated in its rightful form.
I should be untrue to myself, to my promises, and to the declarations of the party platform upon which I was elected to office, if the incoming Congress is not aware of the importance of
boxing cat videos and our
shared human moments of folly. We should encourage this in every way feasible.
It is a very enterprising time in America. The Pedro Miguel Locks have just been completed as part of the Panama Canal, there are Nobel Prize rumors circulating around regarding Ms. Curie’s so-called “radium discovery”, and J.P. Morgan is building a steamship they say is unsinkable. Very enterprising times, indeed. One can only imagine what events will be recorded for all the world to see.
William Howard Taft, President of the United States of America, recently watched “Histeria! William Howard Taft - Theme From Taft.”
Follow
Hilarious!
ReplyDeleteYou do realize that was the biggest fail of an April fools joke ever, and that it's not even funny.
ReplyDeleteThe one thing I remember from the 100 years of Youtube's presence on the inter-webs was the viral video hit during WWII. It involved dubbing various speeches by Hitler into various other speeches. It always tickled by funny bone. :P
ReplyDeleteAwesome. Happy April fools!
ReplyDeleteDailymotion make a powered one too :
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymotion.com/fr?editor=x2a
And congratulation for Youtube 2011
ReplyDeleteBloody good show mates. Some truly epical memes pulled off with a most witty of fashions.
ReplyDeleteWHY DOESNT IT WORK!
ReplyDeleteWhy is the 1911 site design / button on the videos not available worldwide / outside the US? Everybody is confused now, Americans talk about the button, others ask where the button is, and Americans reply that these others must be stupid not to see it.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't even work when the language/location prefernces are set to US-English and worldwide.
That's not fair!
Good Stuff.....
ReplyDeletewhy can't i see the 1911 mode. I just get the regular youtube page, please tell me how to enable it.
ReplyDeletelol nice one youtube
ReplyDeleteLOL, you think we're that dumb to believe that? Goodness, I hate April Fools day...
ReplyDelete#EpicFlummox!
ReplyDelete-- MrJM
uhhhhh
ReplyDeleteHappy April Fool's!
ReplyDeletewoaaa I love it
ReplyDeleteHere's another classic W. Howard Taft video for all you Taft connoisseurs:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jnSHV4slhw
Great Scott Marty! The DeLoren has sent us to 1911! A simpler, better time when memes were safe from 4Chan!
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday!
ReplyDeleteSo now youtube is 100 years AND 5 years at the same time?
i know i dont usually like the changes google has made to youtube, i am being honest when i say this:
ReplyDeletecan you please keep the feature of the 1911 button on some videos?
maybe you can make it possible for the video creator to choose if this button appears on the video they are editing the in the video editing page?
lol youtube is not 100 years old this is an april fools joke!
ReplyDeleteThe scary part is I wonder how many people will take this as serious, and not as a parody. I mean, I still have some faith in people, but every day a little more of it dies. I'm glad I read this before those people came out, so I don't have to be sure that anyone would take it seriously.
ReplyDeleteThis.. Is.. Wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI don't know.... I think it was pretty dumb... actually very much retarded...What am I saying? It was utterly stupid!!
ReplyDeleteYou know that Taft was the only President that was Both a Mason and in Skull and Bones right?
ReplyDeleteYou are so screwed.
Funny, hate how these buttons never last long enough (World Cup horn, Light Switch, etc.). Irksome citrus, funny as hell!
ReplyDeleteI can't see the button! I live in the US and it's set to 'worldwide.' I don't know what's wrong! I really want to see the button. help?
ReplyDeleteI like this April Fools' joke YouTube has done. Last year's TEXT mode was cool too with applying video effects. I like the color correction, layers and gradients, and scratches on the 1911 mode. The music going along with it is nice too, though I'm kind of sad it muted the original audio. At least all the things done were fairly accurate of a real 1911 movie. Great work YouTube, you've shown you can power your video player with ASCII generation and even advanced effects like the ones stated.
ReplyDeleteI loooove the Kaiser Wilhelm parody videos
ReplyDeleteI love the "1911 effect" we can add to our videos. I wish there was a way to save that, to send a link to a friend.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the trip down memory lane! p.s. Loved the ads! And I want a buggy horn!
ReplyDeleteYou tube is the best thing that happened to the internet. I see you tube celebrating its true 100 years some time in the future. I children will probably see us then too.
ReplyDeletesounds like it is celebrating the centenial of the m1911 though.
ReplyDelete1911 Mode is WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeletePlease,please keep it as a feature!
Maybe make other buttons too like a Groovy 1960's Button?
We need a new Howard Taft! Listen to the man.
ReplyDeleteto enable 1911 mode, add &vintage=1911 to the end of a video URL.
ReplyDeleteLOVE IT!!! Not only is it making me LMAO, but it also just goes to show how much we have progressed in the last 100 years! OK... in the last 25 years even. This was SO funny! THANK YOU!
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday Youtube !
ReplyDeleteI asked my grandmother but she didn't have the internet in 1911... Too bad, I would like to see screenshots of the beginning ! Videos were in black and white, right ?
I hope to see you another 100 years !
It does my heart good to hear president Taft speak such encouraging words. His ability to capture our collective interest along with providing us with such a first rate blog is truly inspiring! I was think'in we had another president currently, but I'd be the first to admit I really don't follow politics all that much.
ReplyDeleteThey had the internet in 1911 :D
ReplyDeleteNice try :D Youtube
ReplyDeleteThe video's grandparents:
ReplyDelete5. The Annoying Orange's grandfather, The Irksome Citrus
4. Antoine Dodson's grandfather, Antonio Dodson.
3. The first Fail Blog is Swing Flummox
2. Rick Astley's grandmother, Ruth Astley
1. Fatso Schmidt (Keyboard Cat)'s grandcatfather, Thinso Schmidt and Charlie Schmidt's grandfather, Charles Schmidt.
Haha, funny :D
ReplyDeleteWe've been YouTube-rolled!
ReplyDeleteWow! Thats some funny shiznit
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsxNxnnhOKI
:):)
ReplyDeletewww.bedavadizi.net
since google bought youtube in october 2006, this site become a no1 video site. until today, youtube reach to top5 in alexa rank from hundred milion websites in the world.
ReplyDeletebut this site (youtube) reported as a most unprofitable to google itself due to the cost for maintain this site, like server, hosting, etc compared to other google's business.