The first video uploaded to YouTube was “Me at the Zoo”.(opens in new window) Featuring platform co-founder Joad Karim at the San Diego Zoo. This is basically a bit of web history that every internet junkie and berry online person knows.
But what if it wasn’t?if there was old A video that went undiscovered for nearly 18 years?
Well, no. “Me at the Zoo” is still the oldest video on YouTube. However, a prankster discovered a YouTube glitch that led everyone to believe that the entire history of video on the Internet had gone wrong from the beginning.
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It all started on Thursday, January 26th, 2023. video(opens in new window) I started making the title “Welcome to YouTube!!!” round(opens in new window) on social media. This video was the only upload on the channel “enn”. The clip consisted of a static image of the old YouTube logo on a blue background. The text overlaid on the video is “By: Chad, Steve, Jawed”, a reference to the YouTube co-founder. “Welcome to YouTube!!!!” Read another text box in the video as “Jump” by Van Halen played in the background, the clip clearly shows him playing Windows Movie Maker in the mid-2000s. There was such an aesthetic.
The upload date of “Welcome to YouTube!!!” was listed as April 6, 2005. If accurate, this video predated his April 23rd upload of “Me at the Zoo.”
Aside from the fact that this video went unnoticed for over 17 years, some viewers started noticing some inconsistencies.
When I clicked on the video to see the details, the upload date was listed as ‘Premiere’. Additionally, the right side of the video showed a disabled Premiere Video Live Chat. This means that the video has been released as a “YouTube Premiere”. This is a feature of the platform that allows pre-recorded videos to be published as live streams for viewers to watch and react in real time. YouTube did not launch this feature until June 2018. Until 2011, you couldn’t even live stream on YouTube.
Additionally, there were other oddities that punctured the claim that this was actually the first YouTube video.By clicking on the channel overview page, viewers can Participation date(opens in new window) This user was dated September 4, 2005, several months after the video was allegedly released. Also, the video resolution was up to 480p, which YouTube didn’t introduce him until 2008.
Finally, some experienced viewers decided to view the source code by right-clicking on YouTube’s watch page. According to the listed metadata, this video was actually he uploaded to YouTube on January 23, 2023.
YouTube confirms glitch
These revelations made it clear and conclusive that there was no newly discovered piece of internet history. I was able to make it look like the video was uploaded at that point.
When contacted by Mashable, a YouTube spokesperson said, “We are aware of an issue that could change the upload date of this video and are working on a fix. Rest assured, the oldest videos on YouTube will always be , “Me at the Zoo”, uploaded by one of the co-founders on April 23, 2005, and helped launch over 17 years of creativity on YouTube. “
As of Friday, the “Welcome to YouTube!!!” video’s upload date has indeed been corrected. It is now shown to have premiered on January 25, 2023.
Since then, the enn channel has uploaded additional videos to troll viewers, including a video titled “Premier Bug 01”. The upload date listed for that new video is listed as first published 53 years ago.
“Welcome to YouTube!!!” The upload date of the video has been corrected, but there is another video on YouTube from 53 years ago.
Credit: Mashable screenshot
