December 22nd, 2006
Number 3 most-read post in 2006: Crocodile Hunter posts hit YouTube
This receding year was the year for YouTube. Just ask Michael Richards and George Allen (not that I'd care to, though).
In addition to clips from the general public, YT had a great year in terms of being the defacto place for news and celebrity junkies to watch videos starring or about their favorite celebrities and topics.
In one of the most tragic celebrity-related developments in 2006, "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin lost his life to a stingray's barb. While there may have been some copyright issues involved, I was encouraged to see the proliferation of user-contributed posts from his show. That encouraged me to make this post on September 5. Checking our server logs, I see this post, Crocodile Hunter posts hit YouTube, was our third-most read post of 2006.
With our increasing broadband penetration, YouTube is indeed our video town crier.
And in the heartbreaking case of Steve Irwin, our town cryer.
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
