5typos.net
Did Janet Jackson’s Nipple Create YouTube?
Alex Cranz, on The Verge:
How Janet Jackson’s ‘wardrobe malfunction’ changed TV forever.
[…]
Jawed Karim, a PayPal employee at the time, missed the halftime show and thus missed the only thing anyone wanted to talk about. He couldn’t find it online, either. He’d been kicking around startup ideas with his friends Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, and the three decided that moments like this one would need a place to be cataloged and searchable on the internet. A few days later, they started working on an online video platform called YouTube.
I hadn’t heard this story before. But more than the factoid, the article it’s a fun read.
In fact, The Verge’s whole 2004 was the first year of the future special edition is delightful. From the website itself to the articles topics and writing. Of course, since I was 23 on that year, I agree totally with the premise.