Photo credit: www.dexerto.com
YouTube has introduced a playful tribute in honor of its 20th anniversary by transforming the video progress bar icon into a whimsical birthday cake.
While YouTube was officially established in February 2005, its first video was not uploaded until April 23 of that same year.
The inaugural video, titled ‘Me at the zoo,’ was uploaded by co-founder Jawed Karim. It features him at a zoo, standing in front of elephants.
In the video, Karim remarks, “Here we are in front of the elephants. The cool thing about these guys is that they have really, really, really long trunks… and that’s cool. That’s pretty much all there is to say.”
As the platform marks two decades of its existence since that first upload, it has chosen to celebrate with this festive Easter Egg visible across selected videos.
YouTube replaced the seek bar icon with a cake
On April 23, YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, subtly rolled out the celebratory change, though it is not visible on every video throughout the platform. Instead, the cake icon is selectively shown on some of the site’s most popular and historic videos.
Jawed Karim’s ‘Me at the Zoo’ is among the videos featuring this update, but finding it elsewhere may be more of a challenge.
Notably, the video ‘Baby Shark’ by PinkFong, which ranks as YouTube’s most viewed video with nearly 16 billion views, also showcases the birthday cake icon on its progress bar. Following closely in view count is ‘Despacito,’ which similarly includes the festive update.
The criteria for which videos received the Easter Egg remain unclear, as its appearance seems somewhat arbitrary. Beyond the top two trending videos, the birthday cake icon becomes less common.
Interestingly, the trailer for the much-anticipated video game Grand Theft Auto 6, set for release in 2025, does feature the birthday cake icon as well.
In contrast, the iconic “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley retains the standard red dot, rather than sporting the new cake motif.
Known widely as the Rick Roll meme, YouTube acknowledged this classic video in the comments, humorously stating, “Can confirm: he never gave us up.”
Since its inception with that initial 19-second clip, YouTube has evolved into a platform that serves as a launchpad for numerous internet and mainstream stars, so influential that even major streaming services like Netflix are eager to collaborate with some of these personalities.
Source
www.dexerto.com