Home movies go global

Published on Friday 21 March 2008 20:14

ONCE upon a time, there were home movies. A solemn test of friendship or familial duty was to sit through the latest holiday footage of a neighbour or parent and still keep awake (and smiling). Usually a stiff gin was required. With the shift from Super 8 to camcorder, the torture became even worse. Two gins were normally required for the performance.

Fortunately these days are gone – now we have YouTube, where you can post your home movies for free on the internet. Created only in February 2005, YouTube is a Mecca for everyone who wants to broadcast to the rest of the planet their holiday videos (especially if chased by a crocodile); attempts at singing in the bath; personal audition as a stand-up comedian; general moans about the world; declarations of love they were afraid to make face-to-face; baby's first words; or the moment the cat fell in the bath.

Incredibly, the YouTube website now has more than 72 million videos, plus nearly three million themed channels. The latest addition is the annual YouTube Video Awards, where we get to find out the most popular home movies ever made.

Meanwhile, the three young men who invented YouTube have a lot to be thankful for. They sold the company to Google, barely 18 months after creating it, for a cool 800 million. Who says home movies are boring? Secretly we like them.