YouTube isn’t just for kids, shut-ins, and people obsessed with Mentos and Diet Coke anymore – over 100 million video clips are viewed there every month. Torontoist wanted to find out what a casual YouTube searcher would learn about Toronto if they just looked at the first clip that came up under a few different search terms.
Read on for the exciting results.
Our initial search under Toronto brought up a clip starring a cheerful, poorly lit young guy named Rick who works for a San Francisco marketing firm. Paradoxically, he has never actually been to Toronto but feels inspired to tell the world about how amazing it must be. In an all too short 17 seconds he gushes about how he’d like to come to Toronto and eat at “the restaurant called Canoe”. It’s unclear whether he’s angling for a free trip or whether he just really, really likes us. Hope to see you in town soon, Rick.
Cool Toronto is a woman named Carolyn who comes off as a little uncomfortable on camera, and to be honest, not very cool at all. She takes 16 seconds out of her busy day at the office to tell us that the Chapters store on Bloor West is really great and we should go. Oh yeah, and you should check out High Park while you’re there. Carolyn hears good things about that too.
The phrase Sexy Toronto seemed to hold real promise. However, the first hit is a tacky 27 second clip from something called “Shop Toronto”, which features a woman shilling for a website called “Sexy Monkey”. That could still be interesting in a twisted way, but it’s not what it sounds like. The site actually sells beaded cell phone covers and related accessories and has nothing to do with monkeys or sex.
It was time to up the adjective ante with Spectacular Toronto. Results here were the most unlikely yet – a 7 minute newsreel from 1944 called “B-29s Rule Jap Skies”. Apart from the casually racist jingoism of the title, it’s full of stirring language like “the devastating power of the mighty Superforts has been felt time and again by Tokyo”. Our personal favorite (and we’re not making this up) is “Rosie O’Donnell’s task force rolls over Tokyo itself, vulnerable to the long range striking power of the Superforts”. Now you know what she did before she got into stand-up.
You have to watch the whole newsreel to find out what it’s got to do with Toronto – the second last story is about a blizzard in Canada.
The bottom line is that Toronto needs to improve its profile on YouTube, and we should all get out there and upload our old videos of Caribana, the Pride Parade, and the CN Tower. That’ll show those geeks with the Diet Coke and Mentos.
Comments
http://www.newmindspace.com kevin bracken
Panorama is much better than Canoe; the view at the latter is not all that great, and unless you really like mushrooms, the food at Panorama is better too.
rek
I came across those weird testimonial spots a few months back. I get the feeling they’re part of something vast and deviant.
Bob McGEE
actually there is Gay Pride stuff and CNE stuff and CN tower stuff BUT you have to say for example “gay toronto” in the search to get it.
http://www.youtube.com/416style sookie
I was surprised to see the rather lame videos on YouTube when I searched for Toronto too, but I also realized that the site works chronologically so that we’ll never get our vids into the top search spots.
I’ve contributed a few Toronto stories on my YouTube channel. Hit “sookie” below this post and prepare to be spooked.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dstopping David Topping
One of the things I’m looking forward to now that Google’s snatched up YouTube is better search capabilities. There seems to be absolutely no logic to YouTube’s search as is right now (it doesn’t even seem to be chronological, sookie).
http://www.guesswork.ca Patrick M
For sure. One of the principal ways that Google hopes to get their $1.65 billion worth is by integrating their search technology with YouTube’s (legal) content.
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YouTube isn’t just for kids, shut-ins, and people obsessed with Mentos and Diet Coke anymore – over 100 million video clips are viewed there every month. Torontoist wanted to find out what a casual YouTube searcher would learn about Toronto if they just looked at the first clip that came up under a few different search terms.
