YouTube is a video sharing service that was originally launched by three early PayPal employees on February 14, 2005,¹⁾ then Google had acquired it for $1.65 billion in stocks²⁾ on October 9, 2006.³⁾⁴⁾ It has grown into a household name since then, adding live streaming in 2015.

It's a popular video sharing and live streaming service that left a massive impact on the internet, marking the end of the Flash era. However, this immense popularity has also been a detriment since the platform has a strict copyright system and tends to 'demonetize' videos, which can make it an unreliable source of income, thus why content creators will often rely on membership platforms to make up for any losses.

The platform started experimenting with live streaming in 2009,⁵⁾ began a slow roll-out in 2010,⁶⁾ then it finally went public in December 13, 2013.⁷⁾⁸⁾ However, their service was initially shoddy, secretly lagged,⁹⁾ and it doesn't advertise streams well, due to the 'algorithm', notification clutter,¹⁰⁾ and the fact that it wasn't their main feature, so it isn't recommended unless you already have a community or connections.

Despite this rough start,¹¹⁾¹²⁾ the platform suddenly became a noteworthy alternative to Twitch in the 2020s,¹³⁾ far exceeding Facebook and Kick. It isn't clear how this exactly happened, though one could assume that the pandemic might've allowed live streaming on YouTube to reach its full potential, rather than have it remain as a website that people occasionally visit to watch clips, highlights, and past live streams on.

On January 12, 2017, the 'Super Chat' feature was introduced,¹⁴⁾ which allows users to pay to have their own message highlighted and temporarily pinned in a ticker if they pay $5.00 minimum. Furthermore, users can send an animated 'Super Sticker', which were added on November 5, 2019.¹⁵⁾ Of course, some streamers may disable either or both or, alternatively, have yet to monetize their channel.

• Annotations Restored
  This will restore *some* of the lost annotations on older videos, which were removed back in 2019.
• Project VORAPIS (V3)
  A userscript that restores the 2013 layout and vastly improves video performance, but be warned that other extensions might be incompatible or have limited functionality. The settings are stashed under the '⚙️' near the upload button, and there is a DARK_MOD setting.
  • StarTube
    Additional userscript for V3 that expands the range of classic themes to choose from. It also makes the settings for V3 and StarTube much easier to find, just click on your account's avatar.
• SponsorBlock
  A crowdsourced extension that aims to help people skip sponsored segments, skip to a single highlight, identify tangents, etc. Limited functionality with V3.
  • DeArrow
    A crowdsourced extension that aims to 'de-sensationalize' video titles and thumbnails, but it has a one-time $1 fee unless you wait 12 hours. More prone to issues. Incompatible with V3.
• Unhook
  Hide comments, recommendations, other unnecessary clutter or 'features', etc.
• YouTube Redux
  A solo extension that restores the Hitchhiker layout from the mid-2010s.

• YouTube has two creation stories. One of the founders cites difficulties finding videos of the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show incident and Indian Ocean tsunami,¹⁶⁾ while the other two formulated a story citing difficulties sharing an alleged dinner party video that the third wasn't invited to.¹⁷⁾
• In the early years, YouTube relied on a click-through rate which encouraged clickbait thumbnails, and only got worse when custom thumbnails were silently added in the late 2000s. These issues was later remedied with a thumbnail policy,¹⁸⁾ along with a retention rate to factor in how long people stay to watch the video, but this came at the expense of short-form content.
  • The following decade then saw short-form content proliferate on mobile-oriented platforms, so you now had an ironic situation where YouTube had to welcome back the short-form content that they previously disincentivized with YouTube Shorts on September 14, 2020,¹⁹⁾ despite having built their entire platform on mid-form and long-form content. Then again, times have changed.²⁰⁾
• From December 2006 to February 2007, Niconico Douga would emerge as a front-end for Japanese barrage commentary on YouTube videos, then Google decided to deny access.
• Rick Astley's 1984 dance-pop song Never Gonna Give You Up, popularized by Rickrolling, is associated with the YouTube video IDs: “oHg5SJYRHA0”²¹⁾ and “dQw4w9WgXcQ”.²²⁾
• YouTube has a maximum upload size of 256 GB or 12 hours,²³⁾ likely meant to combat spam, yet the videos exceeding 12 hours (e.g. countdown timers, meme videos) aren't that hard to find.
• The forced Google+ social media integration with YouTube began on November 6, 2013.²⁴⁾ Almost everyone hated this^25)26)27)28) and they would not undo this move until July 27, 2015.²⁹⁾ Eventually, Google+ was shuttered in 2019 and, surprisingly, YouTube would migrate back to the old alphanumeric handle name system around October 26, 2022.³⁰⁾
• On October 17, 2023, their 'Like' and 'Subscribe' buttons get a small animation (“smartimation”) when the two words are said,³¹⁾ yet there are limits to avoid it being spammed throughout the video.³²⁾
• There should really be an option to permanently disable “ambient mode” when watching videos in dark mode, I don't need a glowing ambilight effect around the fucking video.

• 'State-funded media' label - These labels actually started out on YouTube in 2018, but it's much more commendable because YouTube is much more thorough, including the Statesian ones.³³⁾

• YouTube (Subscriptions) - The front pages of YouTube.

☻/ This is bob. Copy and paste him so he can take over youtube.
/▌
/\