V&A to showcase YouTube’s 2005 watch page and “Me at the Zoo” in Design 1900 – Now exhibit
Two decades after YouTube debuted to the world and the first video was uploaded, the platform is being honored in a high-profile museum setting. London’s Victoria and Albert Museum has added a YouTube-focused centerpiece to its Design 1900 – Now collection, which opens today. The display features a reconstruction of YouTube’s 2005 watch page and a projection of the original 19-second clip “Me at the Zoo,” filmed by co-founder Jawed Karim. The aim isn’t simply nostalgia: curators want to illustrate how early YouTube helped shape internet culture and the way online communities form around video, commentary, and recommendations.
YouTube’s involvement with the piece is clearly strategic. As Neal Mohan, YouTube’s chief executive, told BBC, reconstructing the 2005 page invites visitors to step back to the dawn of a global cultural phenomenon. The platform’s own blog adds context, noting that the short jawed Karim clip is widely regarded as a foundational moment for user-generated content, helping to redefine public expression and altering how media is produced and consumed. In short, it marks the birth of many social features we now take for granted.
The exhibition also highlights how early YouTube borrowed from and influenced broader social design. Even in its first iterations, you could find primitive versions of badges, rating buttons, sharing options, and recommendation systems—mechanisms that would become central to how we discover and enjoy media online. It’s striking to consider that the site’s earliest design choices were already hinting at the features that define modern platforms, and that such “old” elements are now recognized as historically significant.
From a personal vantage point, the piece prompts retrospective thoughts about the internet’s evolution. The writer recalls discovering YouTube around 2007–2008, feeling a sense of otherworldliness as clips ranged from The Sims moments to viral sensations like Potter Puppet Pals. The arrival of Vevo in 2009 brought a flood of music videos to the service, yet, in many ways, the experience feels both new and familiar today. The trajectory from those early days to today’s polished interfaces underscores how quickly digital spaces become central to everyday life.
Looking ahead, the display invites conversations about museum-worthy digital artifacts. If YouTube’s earliest layout—less refined, more experimental—can be exhibited, what other foundational moments from social platforms might find their way into major museum spaces years from now? It’s a reminder that the architecture of online culture is history in the making.
Rowan, an Editorial Associate and Apprentice Writer for TechRadar, contributes this reflection on how an early video and its page layout continue to influence how we consume and discuss media today.