Time magazine names YouTube 'Invention of the Year'
YouTube bashers often argue that the video-sharing site offers little more than a place for people to watch other people behave as fools.
Fans say that YouTube, a service that allows anyone to post videos on to the Web, is a new form of communication. On Monday, Time magazine sided with the latter group by naming YouTube "Invention of the Year."
San Bruno, Calif.-based YouTube beat out such innovations as Gardasil, a vaccine that fights off a sexually transmitted disease and the Hug Shirt, which simulates the feeling of being embraced by a loved one.
"YouTube had tapped into something that appears on no business plan," writes Time's Lev Grossman, "the lonely, pressurized, pent-up video subconscious of America. Having started with a single video of a trip to the zoo in April of last year, YouTube now airs 100 million videos and its users add 70,000 more every day."
Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. He is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. E-mail Greg, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sandoCNET. 
