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  • Essay / The Evolution of YouTube - 533

    Since 2005, YouTube has become an online news and media source for millions of viewers around the world. Google bought the site in 2006 for $1.65 billion in stock and since then it has only gotten bigger and more powerful, incorporating ads, movies, news shows and, most recently , musical awards. However, with new additions to videos including advertisements, corporate sponsorship, and the ability to purchase movies through PayPal, the dynamics and environment around this popular site have changed. What started as a simple social media site has become one of the most popular ways to advertise and display messages to the public, personalizing ads and creating new ways to interact with the audience. YouTube creators Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim started out as colleagues at PayPal, giving them exposure to how a business works and how to structure new and growing business ideas . The timing was perfect to create a new media site: with the popularity of Facebook, audiences were looking for more interactive databases to connect and share information with the world. However, as the site gained more attention, advertisements began to appear on screen in the corners of the videos, attracting and competing for attention, forcing the viewer to interact and navigate out of the advertisement to regain part of the screen. Slowly, in addition to part of the screen being blocked by advertisements, before the videos were broadcast, short clips of advertisements were shown. Additionally, after viewing a video, the viewer is invited to select a new video similar to the first, which suggests that depending on what they have viewed, they may also enjoy a selection of others . This process is similar to Rushkoff's Atmospheric Disorientation and Overwhelm of the Senses. After watching several videos similar to the first, you lose track of where or when you started, gradually ignoring what you wanted to watch in the first place. Music or sounds in addition to video stimulate the senses, encouraging the viewer to continue watching videos despite the relevance or interest of watching new videos. Today, YouTube offers a variety of layouts. For viewers visiting the site for the first time, the most popular or most recently viewed videos are displayed first, then divided into categories such as news, music, sports and individual channels. However, if you have a YouTube account, the homepage will be tailored to the channels you usually watch, with suggestions for new videos based on what you've watched and liked before..