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Me at the zoo

jawed0 HN recommenders · 2016–2021
447.3M views · other · evergreen · Uploaded 2005-04-24

The first video ever uploaded to YouTube, in April 2005. Co-founder Jawed Karim stands in front of the elephants at the San Diego Zoo for about 19 seconds.

HN mentions it as a historical reference, for dates and as the first YouTube video, not as a recommendation.

Internet culture & memes

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7 comments from Hacker News

@jsight2016 · in “Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client”

Yeah, everything was better ten years ago. Like this ten year old youtube video: [VIDEO] (240p?). Web pages have become bloated, but they load faster on my phone now than they did on the desktop that I had in 2005. There are many frustrating things occuring with development now, but it is crazy to say that ten years ago was objectively better.

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@ronilan2019 · in “YouTube was launched as a dating site”

This wayback machine is from April 28, 2005. Me at the Zoo[1] is from April 23, 2005. So technically speaking, someone did upload something. And 5 days is actually really 5 days... Which brings the question - what is the second oldest YouTube video still on the site? Who is the “also ran”? [1] [VIDEO]

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@muglug2020 · in “SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM”

> I think YouTube's success is mainly that they were first Actually, Vimeo's first videos[0] were uploaded a month before YouTube's[1]. [0] [LINK] [1] [VIDEO]

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@drivers992021 · in “The first two hours of MTV (1981) [video]”

Nice. Here’s the first official video on YouTube (not just a test which was then deleted). “Me at the zoo” by jawed (a YouTube founder) 2005-04-23 [VIDEO] 19 seconds long

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@TheCycoONE2021 · in “How can we make air conditioners more efficient? [video]”

The first video was founder Jawed Karim visiting the zoo: [VIDEO] It gets pulled out as a factoid periodically.

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@sorenjan2021 · in “Larry Page: “I think we should look into acquiring YouTube” (2005)”

> 16 years later, home video is still the core value of YouTube Is it? I guess it depends on what you mean by home video. Is it "Me at the zoo"[0], or independent content creators like PewDiePie or Veratassium? Compared to Hollywood most if not all Youtube channels are completely different, but when I think of home video and early Youtube I think of personal family trips, not NileRed. [0] [VIDEO]

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@propogandist2021 · in “YouTube deleting comments who criticize their hiding of the dislike count”

>I don't think there is deep evil thinking behind dislike change this isn't a small change, it's a major platform decision that impacts user experience, usability and engagement -- it's also received strong criticism from the community including from the original founder of Youtube [1] (see description), but they're pushing it through anyway You're being too naïve about the corporate agendas behind this change. [1] [VIDEO]

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