14 DAY TRIAL // YouTube is all about originality, if we are to strip away all of the lawsuits for copyright infringement, and creativity. The user-created clips that have made it the world's biggest video sharing site have all been set against one another in a contest to see which one is the most popular, for each category available: Adorable, Comedy, Commentary, Creative, Eyewitness, Inspirational, Instructional, Music, Politics, Series, Short Film and Sports.
After a week-long voting process, the winners were announced on Friday and, truth be told, there weren't any real surprises. The most popular video turned out to be Tay Zonday's 'Chocolate Rain,' which was also the winner in the Music category, God knows why. The nominations were chosen from the videos users favorited, those which generated the most discussion or views and / or made some kind of social impact, as the YouTube team explained on the YouTube Official blog.
The prizes, as the award winners' page announced, will include bragging rights, a trophy and a special invitation to an event later this year. It really doesn't sound like much to begin with, but given the social implications any social network, such as YouTube is turning to be, has grown to have, the bragging rights suddenly transform into something really important, and the award into something future generations will hear about. YouTube is the second most visited Internet location in the world, and except from the Google's search engine page, it is the second most sought after from the Mountain View-based company's slew of services.
I have provided the links to the grand winner, as well as those to two of the most interesting videos that are really worth checking out. Interestingly enough, the Comedy video winner strays from the usual line of what some might consider as old school comedy, but it is the perfect exemplification of the originality and creativity combined with ingenuity that has placed YouTube ahead of similar services.