London Museum Acquires Earliest YouTube Video for Permanent Collection   

• The first video ever uploaded to YouTube has found a new home at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The 19-second clip titled “Me at the zoo” was filmed by then-25-year-old YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim and shows him rambling about elephants at the San Diego Zoo. The low-resolution video was uploaded on April 23, 2005. Though simple, it marked a turning point in internet culture, helping launch the era of user-generated content. The clip has accrued nearly 380 million views. Visitors to the museum’s Design 1900-Now gallery can see the video within a recreated version of YouTube’s original interface. The display highlights early design elements that later became standard across social media, including ratings, comment sections, sharing tools, and recommendation features. Because YouTube did not archive its early design, V&A’s curators painstakingly pieced the page together with the help of the company’s user-experience team, digital conservation specialists, and interaction design studio oio. Museum officials say this snapshot of YouTube during the early days illustrates how simple online tools have transformed communication, creativity, and global storytelling. Yesel Kang Copy Editor junior/1774407305/1613367813