If you've ever sat down to watch one YouTube video, you've no doubt spent a lot of time watching several. Ever since it launched, YouTube has grown into a monolith of the digital media and social networking age. ComScore estimates that between August 2009 and August 2010, the average web surfer spent approximately four to four-and-a-half hours watching YouTube videos each month, or eight to nine minutes every single day (Website Monitoring estimates the average at 15 minutes a day). But have you ever wondered just how big the YouTube space really is?
I thought it might be a fun little exercise to contemplate the theoretical boundaries and mathematical possibilities of YouTube. A brief review of YouTube's impact on the internet since its inception in 2005 is a fascinating glimpse into a gigantic and as yet undiscovered universe.