April Fools' Day: Google Announces YouTube Shutdown - East Idaho News
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April Fools’ Day: Google Announces YouTube Shutdown

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GETTY 4113 Youtube?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1364811480474ERIC PIERMONT/AFP/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — It turns out that YouTube was just a big contest.

According to the YouTube blog, the site, which was launched in 2005, was just a way to find the best video in the world.  And on Monday, eight years later, it is closing the competition.

The site will stop taking submissions on Tuesday, April 2, at midnight and close down.  All videos will be deleted.

YouTube will start to announce the best video nominees at 9 a.m. PT on April 1 via a live-streamed broadcast. 

While 30,000 technicians go through the YouTube submissions, a panel of judges, which includes famous YouTubers like Antoine Dodson and iJustine, will vote on the best video.  The best video will be selected by 2023 when the site will relaunch.

You took note of that April 1 date, right?

Of course, YouTube, which Google bought for $1.65 billion in 2006, isn’t shutting down.  But Google loves itself a good April Fools’ Day joke. 

On April 1 in years past, Google has said it was changing its name to Topeka and said it was releasing a service called Google Paper, which would send you printed copies of all your emails.

On Monday, it also announced “Google Nose,” a search service that is powered by smell.

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