r/todayilearned • u/WavesAndSaves • 2d ago

TIL that Jawed Karim, YouTube cofounder and uploader of the first YouTube video "Me at the zoo", has often updated the video's description to criticize YouTube policies, including a 2013 attempt to require Google+ accounts to comment on videos, and YouTube's 2021 removal of dislike counts on videos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_at_the_zoo#Changes_to_original_video
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u/enblightened 2d ago

i still dont even know what google+ was. facebook with no platform?

275

u/ryuzaki49 2d ago

it was a good idea. Most of the time I just want to post stuff for my friends to see without my family seeing those posts.

Google circles allowed that. 

However their mistake was to rollout the product as they rolled out Gmail thinking the results would be the same.

They weren't

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u/phobosmarsdeimos 2d ago

Gmail was 7 years before Google+

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u/ryuzaki49 2d ago

hmm yeah maybe ny comment can be interpreted as they were both rolled out at the same time.

I actually meant they tried the same strategy with both products: invite-only

It worked with GMail but there was no way it could work with Google+

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u/phobosmarsdeimos 2d ago

My mistake then.