Behind the screens: Adventures in YouTube

It's the phenomenon that's sweeping the internet. But what's on offer for someone who's never encountered the video-clip website? A bemused Paul Vallely logs on to a virtual world of pop, parodies and teenage pranks

Published: 14 October 2006

Lonelygirl15 posted her 50th videoblog entry on YouTube yesterday. Except that she did not appear in it. The camera was on her boyfriend Daniel and some blurry footage he seemed to have shot on his mobile phone. It showed his girlfriend walking through the woods to some kind of ceremony. At least we assumed that was what it was. The last time we had seen her on camera herself was two days earlier, in a videoblog entry she had titled: The Ceremony Is Tomorrow.

When I last looked 205,712 internet-users had viewed that entry. Which is nothing really. She has been posting her video diary musings since June and some of them have clocked up almost a million hits each. Lonelygirl15, who let slip earlier that her name is actually Bree, is one of the home-made stars in the YouTube firmament. Her blogs have 15 million cumulative hits.

Article Length: 1707 words (approx.)