YouTube is one of the most popular video sharing platforms on the internet today. With over 2 billion monthly users, YouTube has become a ubiquitous part of internet culture and modern digital media. But is YouTube actually considered a website? Let’s take a closer look at what defines a website and whether YouTube meets those criteria.
What is a website?
A website is a collection of related web pages under a single domain name. Websites are hosted on web servers and accessed by users via the internet through a web browser. There are a few key components that make up a website:
- Domain name – The website URL or address (e.g. youtube.com)
- Web pages – HTML documents with text, images, videos etc.
- Hosting – Web servers that store website files and deliver them to users
- Web browser – Client software like Chrome, Firefox that loads and displays websites
Websites generally have multiple pages that are linked together, allowing users to navigate from page to page. Some common types of websites include:
- Informational – Provide content and articles (news, reference)
- E-commerce – Sell products and services online
- Business – Share info about a company, brand or organization
- Personal – Individuals sharing hobbies, interests or portfolios
- Blogs/forums – Users publish content and discuss topics
Key attributes of a website
Based on the definition above, here are some of the key technical and functional attributes of a website:
- Own domain name – youtube.com, facebook.com, etc.
- Multiple connected web pages – Homepage, about, contact, etc.
- Navigational links – Menu and internal links to browse site
- Common layout – Branding and design uniformity
- Hosted online – Available 24/7 on web servers
- Accessible via web browser – Viewed on browsers like Chrome and Safari
- Interactive pages – Forms, comments, account registration etc.
- Provides info/services – Content, articles, shopping, etc. for users
Examining YouTube’s website characteristics
Now let’s take a look at YouTube and see how it stacks up against the main website criteria:
Domain name
YouTube has its own unique domain name registered and mapped to its IP address – youtube.com
Multiple web pages
YouTube consists of many different pages for browsing, searching, watching videos, managing accounts and settings, and more. Some examples include:
- youtube.com – The homepage
- youtube.com/feed/explore – Explore videos page
- youtube.com/channel/{channel} – Individual channel pages
- youtube.com/watch – Watch videos page
- youtube.com/account – User account management
Navigational links
YouTube provides a navigation bar at the top of all pages with links to different sections of the site like Home, Explore, Subscriptions, Library, History and more. The familiar layout and menu options allow users to easily browse and navigate the site.
Common layout
All the pages on YouTube share a consistent layout and branding. No matter what page you’re on, the style and interface remain familiar. This creates a unified website experience.
Hosted online
YouTube is hosted on Google’s global network of web servers. It’s available 24/7 to anyone in the world with an internet connection.
Accessible via web browsers
Users can access and view YouTube via any standard web browser like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, etc. No specialized software is required.
Interactive pages
YouTube provides interactive features across its pages like video playback, commenting, playlists, search, content uploading and user account management.
Provides info/services for users
YouTube exists to allow users to search for, watch, share, comment on and upload videos. The ability to upload user-generated content is a key interactive service.
| Website Attribute | YouTube |
|---|---|
| Own domain name | youtube.com |
| Multiple web pages | Homepage, video pages, account pages, etc. |
| Navigational links | Menu links across top of all pages |
| Common layout | Consistent branding and interface |
| Hosted online | Available globally 24/7 |
| Accessible via browsers | Can be viewed on any web browser |
| Interactive pages | Video playback, commenting, account management, etc. |
| Provides info/services | Allows uploading, sharing and viewing videos |
Conclusion
Based on this evaluation, YouTube meets all the standard criteria that define a website:
- It has its own dedicated domain name and hosting
- Consists of many interconnected web pages
- Provides consistent site-wide navigation and branding
- Is accessible 24/7 to users with a web browser
- Contains interactive features and services
While YouTube specializes in video hosting and streaming, it still utilizes web pages, links, and typical website technology under the hood. The only difference is that YouTube pages prominently feature video players and interaction compared to text and images on more traditional websites.
Additionally, YouTube is owned and operated by Google. It is very much integrated into their overall web services and infrastructure. Google treats it as a website in their portfolio of products.
So in summary – yes, YouTube meets all the criteria of being classified as a website, even if it looks and functions differently than an informational site. The underlying technology makes YouTube a specialized type of website geared towards video discovery, sharing and engagement.
YouTube’s evolution into a social media platform
While YouTube fulfills the definition of a website, over the years it has also evolved into a social media platform by incorporating more ways for users to interact:
- User profiles – Channels that users can customize with bios and branding
- Subscriptions – Subscribe to channels to follow their new videos
- Notifications – Get notified when channels you follow upload
- Playlists – Curate and share collections of videos
- Likes/dislikes – Rate and evaluate videos
- Comments – Have discussions under videos
- Community tab – Channels can post text, images, polls to followers
- Live streaming – Creators can live stream to subscribers
With these social features, YouTube has become not just a video viewing website but also a bustling social platform where creators and viewers can regularly interact. This reinforces YouTube’s status as a unique, highly-social multimedia website.
Comparison to other video platforms
To further illustrate YouTube’s website credentials, let’s compare it to some other popular video platforms:
Netflix
Netflix is primarily a video streaming service, not a website. Users can browse and watch videos but have limited ability to interact or upload their own content. Videos are not shared publicly and there is no social networking component.
TikTok
While TikTok feels like a mobile app, it also meets many website criteria. Users have shareable profiles, can upload short videos, follow others, like/comment on videos, etc. However, TikTok does not allow for easy direct video embeds/links to individual videos like YouTube does.
Twitch
Twitch is a live streaming website/platform with channels, videos and social features. It shares many similarities with YouTube as a multimedia website centered around video interaction.
| Platform | Domain | Web Pages | Video Embeds | User Uploads | Social Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube | youtube.com | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Netflix | netflix.com | Yes | No | No | No |
| TikTok | tiktok.com | Yes | Limited | Yes | Yes |
| Twitch | twitch.tv | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
This comparison shows that YouTube shares many website attributes with fellow video sites Twitch, but differs significantly from a pure video streaming service like Netflix.
YouTube’s infrastructure
Taking a technical look under the hood also confirms YouTube’s status as a website:
Web servers
YouTube uses thousands of web servers distributed globally to host and deliver its site pages and videos to users. Web servers are a core component of web hosting infrastructure.
Web development
YouTube was built and continues to be improved by web developers. They use common web languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript to build YouTube’s web pages and front-end application functionality.
CDN
YouTube uses a content delivery network (CDN) which replicates data on proxy servers around the world to provide low-latency, high-bandwidth delivery of YouTube’s videos and web content to users.
Web architecture
YouTube follows a typical multi-tier web architecture. The presentation tier generates the HTML front-end, the application tier handles site logic like recommendations and search, and the database tier stores all video, user and site data.
Without leveraging standard web technologies and infrastructure, YouTube could not operate as it does today.
Uses of YouTube videos on websites
Finally, one giveaway that YouTube is a website itself is the ability to easily embed YouTube videos on other websites. YouTube provides embed code that sites can use to directly display YouTube videos within their own web pages. Some examples include:
- News sites embedding news footage from YouTube
- Bloggers embedding YouTube videos in their articles
- Businesses embedding product demo videos
- Support sites embedding how-to tutorial videos
If YouTube was solely an app and not a website, it would be much more difficult for external sites to directly access and embed its videos. The embed feature relies on YouTube’s nature as an open website.
Conclusion
In summary:
- YouTube meets all the standard criteria that classify a website
- It serves as a social multimedia platform with user interaction
- It utilizes typical web hosting infrastructure and architecture
- YouTube videos can be embedded easily on external sites
While YouTube has evolved beyond just a simple video sharing site, at its core it still relies on and exhibits all the functionality of a website. So whether you consider it a multimedia web portal, a social video community or some combination, there is no doubt that YouTube fully qualifies as a website!