YouTube is eight years old today while also enjoying the distinction of 100 hours of video being uploaded every other minute.

If one remembers well, the company had its humble beginnings in 2005 – the year when Michael Jackson was accused of child molestation and Lance Armstrong won his seventh Tour De France.

Even if a lot of things has changed since then, YouTube continues to remain if not grow stronger with each day. A significant reflection of this strength is the announcement that youTube recently made where almost 100 hours of video is being uploaded every minute.

Yes, four days of video in just sixty seconds.

While just two years ago, it was 48 hours per minute, and last year, it was 72 hours per minute, the current statistics indicate that YouTube continues to grow steadily while other platforms like Facebook is beginning to fade, especially when it comes to capturing the interest of today’s youth.

If that’s not enough, YouTube continues to offer startups the ability to use its content and huge user base to their benefit.

Keeping this in mind, YouTube had this to say at their official blog, “And so, on our eighth birthday, we’d like to thank you for making YouTube the special place that it is. For showing us how video can create connections, transcend borders and make a difference. For clicking these links even if you aren’t sure what they’ll be, but you trust us. In short, thanks for making us better in big ways and small ones, too. We can’t wait to see what you come up with next.”


Helena Roeber and Rachel Garb, Android UX and interaction design leads, spoke at the Google I/O about Android Design Principles (ADP). But this wasn’t just about geek-speak as the talk covered the importance of positive human experience as well, and which was used to create ADP.

The ADP itself is based on three principles namely enchat, simplify and amaze. Yet their focus is on creating a user experience that seeks to achieve a net positive or net zero effect on the user, and have done so, by basing their principles on research.

While that might seem simple enough, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that designers and app builders should make every effort to please audiences, and the two brought the equation down to three positive experiences for every bad experience. A couple of studies based on marriages and work-related situations has served as a foundation for the aforementioned conclusion.

Quite rightly, the duo believes that technology now has a profound impact on our lives and every time something does go wrong, we tend to blame ourselves for it. The effort to get that net positive or net zero experience becomes harder with each negative experience.

They also go on to say that the focus should not just be on minimizing negative experiences when an individual uses the Android interface but really to add points to the win column so as to really ‘spread happiness’.

While this might seem to be ambitious, it must be pointed out that since the introduction of the ADP to Android, the user experience has experienced a dramatic shift for the better since then.