If you’ve visited Myspace, Facebook, or any number of other sites on the internet today you have invariably been exposed to a YouTube video. YouTube has seen the number of its uploads grow over 1700% in the past several months, and with the advent of the “Smart Phone”, one need not look far to find the cause. With their increasing popularity, and increasing ease of use, Smart Phones are becoming a way for more and more people to share their lives with each other. It follows then that if the Smart Phone is the brush with which we paint our individual life stories, then YouTube is fast becoming the canvas.

The Apple, in its design of the iPhone 3GS, has gone to great lengths to put the power of mobile video into the hands of any user. The iPhone 3GS’s built in video functionality is impressive to say the least, and its ease of use has no doubt added to the popularity of this particular Smart Phone. The impact that the new iPhone 3GS has had on the rate of YouTube’s mobile uploads has been staggering to say the least, with uploads increasing over 400% in the first six days since its release.

This is, however, only the beginning, and as more and more people become familiar with the technologies and platforms available to share their videos with friends and family, YouTube’s numbers will continue to increase exponentially, a thought that has not gone unnoticed by other cell phone manufacturers who are scrambling to design and market competitive alternative options for consumers.

As more and more people become educated about mobile uploads, the impact on YouTube, though not completely known, will undoubtedly be staggering. Some are concerned that this mass uploading of random videos will lead to an increase in the amount of garbage shown on YouTube and other media outlets. That being said, there will assuredly be an equal increase in quality, thought-provoking contributions as well. Some have even speculated on the so-called “iReporter” movement, stating that the coming increase of mobile uploads might lead to more “news” being shared with the world first hand from viewers just like you, on the scene, as the event is occurring, without editing. The current examples of this are scattered everywhere, from the protests in Iran, to videos shot by troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, to videos shot here in our own country, like those shared during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Posted by Lewis Van Tassel
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Lewis Van Tassel is a Education Manager for Omnistar Affiliate Software and Omnistar Email Marketing Software