15 Years Ago Today – First Ever YouTube Video Was Uploaded

It's kind of hard to imagine life without YouTube but until April 23, 2005, it was non-existant.

According to Wikipedia, the domain name "YouTube.com" was activated on February 14, 2005, with video upload options being integrated on April 23, 2005, after being named "Tune In, Hook Up" the original idea of Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. The concept was an online dating service that ultimately failed but had an exceptional video and uploading platform.

The first YouTube video (see above), titled 'Me at the zoo,' was uploaded on April 23, 2005, and shows co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo and currently has over 90 million views. The 18-second video is literally Karim at the zoo standing and talking in front of an elephant exhibit. It's pretty lame but an interesting piece of history.

YouTube launched with its first video the very same year my son was born. He has a really hard time understanding the concept of a world without YouTube. He's the kind of kid that sits around watching other people play video games on YouTube. That is just something I"ll never understand. Then again, he'll never understand a world where you can only watch music videos on a tv channel called MTV.

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