Engineers at video upload site YouTube.com played a practical joke on fans late Thursday evening as they prepared to roll out new site features.
YouTube, which hosts homemade videos, took down the site and posted a cryptic and grammatically incorrect place-holder message written in capital letters: "All your video are belong to us."
The inability to get on to the site and the
poor grammar, a likely reference to a poorly translated video game that evolved into an animated Web phenomenon some years ago, had some YouTube fans believing that the site had been hacked. At around 10:45 p.m. PT, an additional sentence appeared that let confused users in on the hoax: "No, we haven't be hacked. Get a sense of humor."
YouTube posted a note on the site at 7 p.m. PT warning users that it would be going down, said YouTube spokeswoman Julie Supan. The San Mateo, Calif.-based company has often placed humorous photographs or messages up when performing maintenance on the site.
"This is what the engineers do, they have fun with our users," Supan said. "They're all cracking up right now. You have to remember who our fan base is. They don't want some dry message."
Supan declined to reveal what site features are debuting Friday, but did say that they would not include a new advertising model. Industry insiders are waiting to see how the company presents ads to its audience of 12 million users.
The Internet's No. 1 video variety show, YouTube is facing growing competition from some big-time players. On Wednesday, Yahoo said it would launch a new video Web site in order to challenge YouTube.
Google and AOL have also jumped into the user-generated video market.
You weren't around for the "All your base are belong to us" craze, were you? <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://allyourbase.planettribes.gamespy.com/" target="_newWindow">http://allyourbase.planettribes.gamespy.com/</a> video1_view.shtml
No, more like the article writer had poor Spelling.. it should be "our".. AND THAT'S WHAT BRINGS ME TO ANOTHER EPISODE OF GRINDS MY GEARS PEOPLE (Cue Peter Grifflin) It's called Spell Check Folks, It comes with a lot of browsers (Well at least 2) or Use your HUMAN brain .. "Our" is like this is OUR house... Are is like "Are you going to come here?"
Go Google "All your base are belong to us" or look the phrase up in Wikipedia. This gag has been around for a long time. Follow this link for the "music video".
We've updated the story to more fully explain the "All Your Base" reference. We think the fact that not all YouTube users got the allusion was part of the reason many of them believed the site had been hacked. Thanks for all your comments on this late-breaking story.
"YouTube is facing growing competition from some big-time players. On Wednesday, Yahoo said it would launch a new video Web site in order to challenge YouTube."
Chamtech's spray-on antenna uses a nano material to provide a low-power boost to antenna range. The wireless-in-a-can product may some day bring an end to unsightly cell towers.
Whether Apple will release a new iPad next month doesn't seem to be the question as much as what day it will happen. A new rumor has it down to the day.
Tommy Jordan, the man who shot his daughter's laptop for YouTube, gets a visit from police and child protection services. Oh, and Good Morning America.
Along with green-lighting Google's buy of Motorola, the Justice Department today OKs an Apple-Microsoft-RIM partnership deal to buy Nortel patents, and Apple's plan to acquire Novell patents.
EnerG2 opens a plant to make an engineered carbon that will improve performance of energy storage devices and make storage for start-stop hybrid cars less expensive.
"Never Stop Playing" campaign for upcoming portable marks Sony's largest platform launch marketing spend, with ads to reach YouTube, Facebook, TV, and billboards in major cities.
As UC Berkeley students, the co-founders of "Back to the Roots" discovered they could grow mushrooms using recycled coffee grounds. Now their mushroom kit sells at grocery stores across the country.
were you? <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://allyourbase.planettribes.gamespy.com/" target="_newWindow">http://allyourbase.planettribes.gamespy.com/</a>
video1_view.shtml
LOL!
If you don't remember this, then you're not old enough to be surfing the web without parental supervision.
-- Or you're not a gamer, maybe? :)
If you don't know what that refers to, then you shouldn't be writing on a tech website.
Take notice C|Net
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://allyourbase.planettribes.gamespy.com/video1_view.shtml" target="_newWindow">http://allyourbase.planettribes.gamespy.com/video1_view.shtml</a>
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://allyourbase.planettribes.gamespy.com/video2.shtml" target="_newWindow">http://allyourbase.planettribes.gamespy.com/video2.shtml</a>
LOL. It's fun to read old articles sometimes.
(lol :))