YouTube has experienced many exciting events backstage since it started. Having started with a single video clip of a trip to the zoo in April of 2005, YouTube now airs 100 million videos—and its users add 70,000 more—every day.
2006 – In just over a year and a half, three PayPal employees Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim turned a simple concept into an astoundingly popular site, Web 2.0’s biggest success so far. According to site tracking firm Hitwise, 60 percent of all videos watched online were clips from YouTube. Not bad for a 19-month-old company.
Now, YouTube has become a media giant in its own right. On October 9, 2006 Hurley and Chen sold the company to Google for $1.65 billion in stock after having some Grand Slam and chicken fingers together with the Google founders a few days ago at a local Denny’s. Google made one of the most remarkable acquisitions in the history of the webosphere.
While the three guys now had their heads worth billions of dollars, the world suddenly witnessed a few people stand up and claim that they were the ones who invented the concept of YouTube, not the guys the world gave credit to.
The most heard guy in this speculation has been Herbert Elwood Gilliland III who claims that he had given Chad Hurley the idea of YouTube. He even made a video of the claim and uploaded it on YouTube:
Although Herbert looks damn serious in the video, we are pretty sure Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim aren’t going to be even sacred from this, let alone sending him a check. We did not get one thing though, Herbert want that $1 million dollars to become what? A doctor?
Then the world saw people making fun of Herbert by making these kind of videos: (Note: We will be really amazed if you make it to the end of this video!)
So the question is, did the trio – Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim – really did invent YouTube or is Herbert the man to be called the inventor of YouTube?
Time will tell what the future holds for fate of YouTube, but Hurley, Chen and Karim have certainly made a place in the Internet’s history as exemplars in the biggest overnight success story in recent times.
What do you think?
Is Herbert the original inventor of YouTube who deserves the $1 million to become a doctor or is it just a speculation to get some lame publicity? We were thinking of contacting Hurley with our claim on YouTube!
UPDATE: Herbert dropped by and left us a comment on this post below.
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I don’t think so the allegation against the trio is true. Herbert is just trying to gain some publicity as you said.
No matter who invented YouTube, the fact is that now Google owns it and it rocks!
I completely agree with Rene.
And whoever the real inventor is, which I think the trio is, did an amazing job out there, which as Archit says, has been the Web 2.0’s biggest success so far!
I really did fall from my chair while seeing that video!!! Archit u said that u would make the most boring things on the internet interesting. but u didnt say that the most interesting thing on the net could be made more interesting and even funny!!!
Well i just want to say that Youtube’s real inventors – Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim – are the ones who are really worth the credit.
Herbert is just a bloke who wants publicity!
Ravindra Khandelwal´s last blog post..You know you’re in college when….
Also, I’d like to take this oppurtunity to congratulate you on the massive success of your site!
Ravindra Khandelwal´s last blog post..You know you’re in college when….
I agree with almost all the people above, Herbert is doing this to gain some recognition.
and Archit, this was a great post!
@Ravindra Congratulations Ravindra! Your comment here is the 100th comment on TechPlug. You are a part of a milestone we set today!
@Jeff Thank you Jeff! We hope to bring more great posts for our readers here on TechPlug.
Cheers!
I challenge you to get Chad to give you a straight story (the one that involves me). I hope that Chad is a good sport about it — but I’m guessing that his lawyers, and Google PR, will advise him not to say anything, or to deny it outright.
@Herb We would like to thank you for dropping by and leaving a comment here.
Herb, we are sure if Chad is reading this post along with your comment he would be happy to respond and give us the real story; whether you really are a part of the YouTube invention or not.
Meanwhile, what does the community think of this story?
I uploaded another statement, Archit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDTNTUTgxC4
Well Herbert, I stick to what i said earlier. Maybe you are linked to the Inventing Trio – Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim – and also maybe you helped them out in some way, but that does not mean you are the inventor of this great phenomenon called YouTube.
And considering what you are saying is true – which i highly doubt – giving ideas is not enough my friend, the real deal was done by them, once in a while the real programmers and the real creators of a phenomenon are getting the due credit they deserve and that makes you want to jump out in the open to snatch it away from them? Is that what you are telling us? is the Hunger of Money pulling you so low?
Ravindra Khandelwal´s last blog post..You know you’re in college when….
Hey Herbert, Few things i noticed in your video response that u uploaded on YouTube was that u turned out to be completely uncertain about what you were saying.
First you said that YouTube was created by a kid called Chad and 2 other kids. and then later you say that you created YouTube because u like it. and prior to that you claimed that by creating YouTube, these kids are just wanting to catch some Fame. And later in the video u say that Social netowking sites like YouTube have yet to prove any value other than distraction. I really dont know what you are getting at Herbert.
Another thing i noticed was that you started to take away the credits from all the major inventors of the world. then who created the Telephone and the Bulb, you??
Then you say that u have no vanity for the money u dont want it and then later in the video you say that u wish to get 1% of the sale price or the stock in some company. And at the end of the video u said that u try to live your life no matter you get the money or not. Make a decision Herbert.
Again considering the possibility that u did help the “kids” with the website, you tell us that u advised the “kids” about putting the video in some corner of the website. Nobody cares what side the video is on. its the video that matters.
Things are pretty clear from your video response, Herbert.
Ravindra Khandelwal´s last blog post..Hey guys! its been a long time, huh?
I guess — Ravindra — your opinion is noted? Frankly, I feel you’re being hypercritical.
“Things like” the video in the upper left, the comment bar underneath, acquisition of deals with major studios and archives, a way to upload from any format, not just select formats like other video websites of the time, ways to rate a video (borrowed from MetaCafe), a way to locate existing copyrighted material by use of case by case analytics called “audio fingerprinting” and “video fingerprinting”, to a resolution greater than is allowed by “Fair Use” in the DMCA and in the copyright laws in the United States, exposition of videos on the front page which included “top tens” “most watched” and other metrics. A “number of views” similar to the Neilson ratings system, except publically available. A way to embed the player in other websites, an idea borrowed from PayPal’s “Buy It” Link. The name of the company and brand, YouTube.
There is evidence that Alexander Graham Bell actually borrowed much of his design plan from a German inventor. This historic argument is viewable on the Wikipedia.
As to your other comments about X, Y, Z, money, or whatever — you just seem to be negative, slightly agitated, and hypercritical. I don’t have much more to say about your comment, other than to remind you that people are more than one dimensional. It sounds like you think I should have said “I want 1% of the sale price, and I won’t stop until I get it” or “I don’t want any money at all” — the fact of the matter is that I do want access to the 1%, but nothing I can do can force the issue to end up in my favor, so why bother fretting over it? I’m not completely consumed by the pursuit of material possessions or wealth, ok buddy?
With all due respect Herb, i am no one to judge whose wise idea was it to invent YouTube nor am i here to be hypercritical. I just wanted to express my opinion about this post on this great place they call TechPlug.
Agreeing with Archit, all we can do here is wait for Chad to leave by a reply.
Ravindra Khandelwal´s last blog post..Hey guys! its been a long time, huh?
> Agreeing with Archit, all we can do here is wait for Chad to leave by a reply.
Well, I would expect either he will never respond (to this post) or that Google PR will release a press release stating some sort of legalese about how the ideas are theirs. This has happened to me at EA with minor product ideas, like URBZ: Sims in the City (based on my work at Project: CLUB and Escape Online, taken from my portfolio during an attempt to be recruited). Their lawyer made sure to post on the forum where I brought up the issue.
Perhaps now is a good time to go get a cup of coffee and get back to work.
Lauren Lamonica, of the Second Life project team, as an example, was a close friend of my roommate in college. She called me one day a few years after graduating to tell me that copying the skills from my resume helped her tremendously in getting a job in the gaming industry. It’s the curse I have I guess.
Looks like a good forum for whats going on.
Be back soon
poorfarm
Hi there,
Everything dynamic and very positively!
Thank you
Hello,
http://www.nextplug.in – da best. Keep it going!
Nadine
Hi there,
Can i take a one small pic from your site?
Robor
Ugh, I liked! So clear and positively.
Have a nice day
@Robor As long as you link back to the post from where you are taking the picture, we wouldn’t have a problem.
Cheers!
Blog liked, a good theme and correctly selected content
Very interesting for me. Thx u for this article and goog luck
Waw. Glad to hear so nice comments. Hope we will have more information soon
All good sdes, materials on topics selected. Well done.
So nice comments and spesial material. I try to add RSS
I really like this blog. I try to be here more than 3 times in a day
Quite a decent blog, at least filling of topics. Have more to these blogs.
I fully support the positive feedback on this blog, well sdelali.Avtoru salute.
I hope to see some more comments and articles
To the writer of this article: No one yet has pointed out that you wrote “we are pretty sure Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim aren’t going to be even sacred from this” — how sacred are they?
You might also want to include the video compilation I made of Chad and Steve’s public lies, available on MetaCafe.
This guy is a really something! You should read his website, he claims to have invented and a few more stuff. He claims he invented the Hummer H3 too… I mean like, yeah ok!
I never claimed to invent the Hummer H3. During an interview with a GM Interaction Designer, I told them they should “Make it smaller” — it became the theme for their commercial (it even featured a guy who looked like me who said “Make it smaller”) .. I did not “invent” the Hummer H3, I just influenced its design. Do you think I paid $120,000 for my education so I could hob nob with restaurant personnel? I was trying to get a job during the “BOC” and “TOC”, a yearly CMU job fair hosted at Carnegie Mellon that features representatives from Intel, GM, Microsoft, Google et al.
Look, I’ve only been involved with a _FEW_ mainstream products and/or deals, and no they never credited me or paid me or offered me even a job for my help. Those products are: URBZ: Sims in the City, Team Fortress 2, Fallout 3, Hummer H3, Microsoft Vista, PayPal’s new anti-fraud system (and the sale to eBay), Citizen’s Bank, PNC Bank Virtual Wallet, YouTube (my company idea). I helped with a few features of Google search, and a few features of Mozilla Firefox (like the recommendation to add a spell checker). I also suggested auto-complete for Linux Kernel. I don’t claim to have done everything, and I wouldn’t because I haven’t. Besides, that’s just not possible. You get a chance, when you go to a school like Carnegie Mellon, to interact with the people who work for those companies, NASA, the DOD, MOMA, Hollywood TV studios, the Guggenheim. Sadly, I never become one of the people who worked for those companies. I don’t know why I am not selected, but I have my own personal theories about that. Suffice to say, with my credentials I do get my foot in the door — the problem is once I’m in there, they just take advantage of me. Company culture is illogical, sometimes immoral, and often wasteful. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has dealt with this. You probably know someone in your neighborhood that makes suggestions to companies and they take them. You, yourself, may have inadvertently helped a company improve their product — or even, perhaps, purposefully.
Dude you need to get a life.
Lets say it like this – I may be true that you invented YouTube, but the thing is that you did not have enough intelligence to impress investors to invest in your idea. The Three YouTubers had that much intelligence and they did a great job bring out YouTube to the world. Besides, your claim in too late. You should have claimed your seat in the early stages and not after a year.
And ya, first decide what are the lies you want to say. On your website you write “General Motors, product development, H3″ and here when Jackon made fun of you, you claim that you were not part of the “Development Team” and that you said it only in an interview. You know I had attended the WordCamp and Matt was also there. In the discussion part, I had given an idea of a new admin interface and guess what? I now claim to be part of the Contributing Developers Team of WordPress. Its just that the WordPress Team forgot to add my name on the website just like GM forgot to add your’s.
> you did not have enough intelligence to impress investors to invest in your idea
Answer a question for me: have you ever worked with start-up incubators, alone, without a billionaire boss or connections in California? Have you ever tried to get a company started on your own, without a real product, just an idea and the knowledge on how to make it? What would you do first? What would you do if for 6 years you did that and they turned you down every time? What if you find the right people, but they don’t see the vision? What would you have done? I exhausted every connection I had in my attempts to start YouTube. No one wants to take a risk like that, especially on the East Coast when Napster is getting rimmed by the RIAA (back in 1997, when I first started shopping the idea around, the web wasn’t adopted yet .. in 1999, Napster was being demonized by the RIAA and the Feds and Metallica). In 2003, I went to San Diego, and worked for a guy named Jamie Smith. He didn’t have the faintest idea what I was talking about with the “YouTube” … and he’s a millionaire. How do you convince someone who wants their money back that you will be able to deliver if they give you hundreds of thousands of dollars?
> You should have claimed your seat in the early stages and not after a year.
The deal was for 1% from the beginning. Chad and Steve, and Jawed, know the truth. They are slimeballs to take credit where credit is due.
> when Jackson made fun of you, you claim that you were not part of the “Development Team”
What the hell are you talking about? What interview was I ever in? Who the **** is Jackson?
Please man! As if you knew YouTube would become such a huge company that you would get enough from just 1%. Or did you again give this idea for charity?
Have you see this picture of Jawed? He looks like a criminal:
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/fortune/0711/gallery.paypalmafia.fortune/8.html
Whatever he may look like. He is what he is. A man with a lot of money and respect AND a name on the YouTube Founder’s list.
LOL!
Definitely doesn’t have my respect. Furthermore, there’s nothing particularly world-changing about what they are doing with their money. Chad invested in Formula 1 racing — thanks for burning some more oil, polluting the environment and perpetuating a violent technology.
And what the **** are you so happy about, Amit? I bet you’re being paid by the hour just like the other 99.9% of us.
Nopes! I run a successful startup company and guess what? Starting the company was my own idea.
Aright look at this:
This guy seems to be the inventor/developer/”idea” giver for free for some of the world’s biggest companies. We’ll go by his website. It goes like this:
OK! So if you REALLY were a part of these things, you must have become a billionair if not a zillionair by now. So how can’t you afford an attorney for the YouTube court case? And dude, if you were really right about you inventing YouTube, a world class attorney would have contacted you by now to fight for you and take a fees only if you would win the case. Dhuh!
“I don’t claim to have done everything, and I wouldn’t because I haven’t. Besides, that’s just not possible.” – Yeah! Now you speaking something sensible! You can’t claim to have done everything like helping god form Earth, Inventing the space shuttle for NASA, sending your dog to the first space mission, inventing the computer and then the internet, giving Bill Gates the idea of doing what he did (and guess what? You gave the idea to him for free!), etc. You can’t claim everything because its impossible for you. But then everybody can claim a few things right? And so you did!
I can’t get into specifics about attorneys or cases. However, I can say that it is quite easy to submit ideas to companies by using social engineering. Social engineering is the same thing that famous hacker Kevin Mitnick used to trick companies into giving him sensitive information. In my case, I’ve already discerned sensitive information (I can reverse engineer any technology, by deduction or by networking). Instead of tricking the company into security faux pas, I simply jump on the phone and explore, and then improve a product by talking to employees and routing messages.
I work in open source, and an example of this kind of submission is appreciated by companies, but it doesn’t always lead anywhere. YouTube wasn’t a suggestion like “dude, call it YouTube”, it was a laundry list of plans that were focused around viral marketing with a positive means.
One goal was to solve a security loophole on both sides of authority, and provide a conduit for video, a place to store vital life data. Businesses are vital, as are films of crimes and other malfeasance, biological disorders, accidents, technologies and, apparently, product unboxing are all valid resources which YouTube facilitates. Chad mumbles “1997″ because that is when I came up with it. To uphold YouTube’s integrity, YouTube needs to be able to identify and suppress criminal activity. This enables us to share all of our history and culture.
It relied heavily on a few hooks — the embed feature and agnostic video format, speed of delivery and short-form. It will change its presentation iteratively until it becomes a fluid experience. They could sell you a home box if they could undercut or compete with the other providers. It shows up on the iPhone, and Android. It’s a gift for the Goog.
I reminded an EA guy about Starflight who worked with the Mass Effect team.
One of my friends, Doug Mozerak, worked on the Microsoft Freelancer team.
So you mean to say you gave some developmental idea to your friend on the Microsoft Freelancer team?
I’ll tell you something, your friend didn’t care about your idea. Even if he did, he implemented it and wrote his name for it. That’s pretty fair! You couldn’t get to that position in the company, he did. If you gave him some idea an if he could implement it, hats off to him.
Now you are just waiting for the game to become such a super-huge-hit like YouTube and then you’ll make one more video claiming the game was your idea! We know it.
You’re a hater, Jackson. Leave me alone. I did what I did.
Malcolm Gladwell used “maven” in his book The Tipping Point (Little Brown, 2000) to describe those who are intense gatherers of information and impressions, and so are often the first to pick up on new or nascent trends. The popularity of the work of Safire and Gladwell has made the word widely used in their particular contexts. Gladwell also suggests that mavens may act most effectively when in collaboration with connectors – i.e., those people who have wide network of casual acquaintances by whom they are trusted, often a network that crosses many social boundaries and groups. Connectors can thus easily and widely distribute the advice or insights of a maven.
In the afterword of The Tipping Point, Gladwell described a “maven trap” as a method of obtaining information from mavens. In the book he gave the example of the toll-free telephone number on the back of a bar of Ivory soap, which one could call with questions or comments about the product. Gladwell’s opinion is that only those who are passionate or knowledgeable about soap would bother to call and that this is a method by which the company could inexpensively glean valuable information about their market.
http://www.nextplug.in to GoogleReader!
Pett
I agree with auther. Article rather interesting and usefull
Herb,
Has this been resolved yet? I tried to email you earlier but gmail wouldn’t recognize your email address.
I’m doing a school research paper on Youtube, and would love to hear form you!
Thanks, Danielle
Danielle, you are welcome to either talk to me on the phone or email me. Alternatively you can email me at hgilliland-at-gmail
Its getting hot in here!