YouTube - A Year In Profile

For nearly three years, YouTube.com has allowed users to view and share video with millions of people online.

Former Paypal employees Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim created the site. Since February of 2005, it has gone from being the vision of three Paypal employees to having a net worth of over $1 billion.

An average of 100 million videos are watched per day on the site, consisting of both user-generated and user-submitted content. Over 59 million videos make up the site's library.

YouTube's enormity has caused problems, as it has infringed copyright law on several occasions. Many users upload and view illicit material. In March 2007, media corporation Viacom filed suit against the site's parent company, Google, for $1 billion on the grounds of copyright infringement.

While YouTube has walked a fine line in relation to intellectual property, it has broken ground in the realm of politics.

This year CNN partnered with YouTube to create the 'CNN-YouTube Presidential Debates.' Users were given the opportunity to submit a question to a candidate. The questions were then filtered and presented to presidential hopefuls. This event marked an unprecedented interaction between candidates and potential voters.

With the support of its enormous user base and successful parent company, YouTube is here to stay.