BBC Learning English

Words in the News

15th December 2010
YouTube is five

Five years ago, YouTube was officially launched. The site has helped launch international
singing careers, played a role in election campaigns and cheered up millions of users who've
logged on to watch everything from giggling babies to skateboarding ducks. Maddy Savage
reports.

It began with three friends searching for an easier way to share videos. One - Jawed Karim -
uploaded the site's first clip - a movie of himself dressed in an anorak at San Diego Zoo.

By the end of its first year YouTube was broadcasting 25 million videos a day and it was soon
bought by the internet giant Google. In 2010 24 hours of video are now uploaded every
minute.

The site's also become an important political tool - almost a million people watched a
wounded girl dying during protests in Iran in July 2009. President Barack Obama
successfully used the site during his election campaign.

Thousands of teenagers around the world have also used the site to upload embarrassing
videos of friends and its creators have been forced to deny claims that it's encouraged
bullying.

With online habits and fads constantly changing no-one's sure what the next five years hold
for YouTube. Some believe it could end up as a TV channel beamed into our living rooms.
Others predict it will be overtaken by new technology and dumped on the internet scrap
heap.

Maddy Savage, BBC News

Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2010

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Vocabulary and definitions

anorak coat that protects the wearer against rainy weather

wounded injured

deny in this case, to say that something is not true

bullying hurting or intimidating someone less powerful

fads activities or items which are very popular for a brief period
of time

end up to eventually become something

beamed sent out electronic or radio signal

overtaken replaced or surpassed

dumped abandoned

scrap heap a pile of discarded metal or rubbish

More on this story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8299951.stm

Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2010/12/101215_witn_youtube_page.shtml

Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2010

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