Google is a massive corporation with
popular companies such as Android and
YouTube in their grasp it's easy to
prove they're a powerhouse not to mess
with but with great power comes great
responsibility and Google is no stranger
and consistently testing and improving
their brand the majority of the time
these tests are done behind closed doors
however one of these tests was done
right in plain sight today we're going
to explore the story about how one of
Google's automated testing programs
ended up becoming a mysterious internet
phenomenon this is the story of
webdriver torso this narrative begins on
March 7th 2013 when the YouTube channel
webdriver torso was created at this
point no one knew anything about the
channel it was simply an empty canvas
but that all changed six months later
when the channel uploaded its first
video and this is what it was
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as you probably witnessed the video is
an 11-second slideshow of random red and
blue rectangles interchanging the pitch
tones
considering there are plenty of weird
videos on YouTube something like this
should be no surprise but what if I told
you these videos were uploaded every
three minutes for six years in fact this
channel has well over six hundred and
twenty four thousand uploads
80,000 of them uploaded within the first
few months alone upon scrolling through
the channel and observing a random
selection they are all roughly the same
a few of them longer than 11 seconds but
they still all follow the same pattern
so what does it all mean
well that was the question the entire
internet was asking back in 2014
no one knew not even the masses of media
had a clue how this mystery worked this
then led everyone down the same path
speculation and theory the most popular
theory declared the videos as messages
for espionage agents like a modern-day
number station the spy would watch the
video or a series of videos and decode a
message although this seemed like the
best guess that didn't stop others from
adding in their two cents other theories
people came up with included it was part
of cicada 3301 secret hiring process a
mind-control testing program and even a
communication device for intergalactic
beings
the speculation went on for a while it
didn't help that the channel also had
three videos that stood out from the
rest the first of these three is an
upload of the Eiffel Tower though the
video is short like the rest it shows a
strange Facebook page for a few seconds
before cutting out the second was a pay
to watch video of the early 2000s
animated series Aqua Teen Hunger Force
however dubbed in French and blocked by
a paywall that can only be accessed by a
French bank account and lastly the third
video was almost the same as the other
600,000 but this time the red rectangle
morphed into a dancing motion of Rick
Astley popular for the rickroll memes at
the time these three videos kept on
confusing the internet after countless
people investigated almost each and
every single upload one man had the
privilege of solving the mystery all on
his own
meet Paolo also no one buys alias slow
jets Alvin - no an Italian blogger and
statistician responsible for solving one
of YouTube's biggest mysteries to
summarize his findings van - no spent
six days and 2014 searching for patterns
and codes within the uploads however the
answer was right in front of him all
along after stumbling across and now
discontinued website channel graphs he
found a link between webdriver torso and
another channel called YT upload test
partner underscore torso the second
channel had a variety of uploads
most notably footage of people testing
of Google software and other devices
since then all but two uploads have been
deleted but at the time these videos
were the only bit of information than to
know needed to solve this case
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additionally the second channel actually
linked to the social media accounts of
two Google employees one of the man from
this video and another named Mattei who
was coincidentally the one on the
Facebook page shown in the upload of the
Eiffel Tower video this can be confirmed
by a now-deleted comment that used to
say Matei is highly intelligent with the
information now forming a complete
picture then to know share dis findings
and the internet was astounded the
mystery of webdriver torso was no longer
a mystery Google themselves even
released a statement on this matter in
June of the same year and good old me in
fashion they responded with we're never
gonna give you up loading but slow or
loses video quality and we're never
gonna let you down by playing YouTube
and poor video quality other than
another Rick Astley reference YouTube
and Google finally confirmed they are
indeed the owner of webdriver torso we
later learned that the purpose of the
channel was the test upload quality by
comparing the upload to the original
video file Google themselves even
provided an Easter Egg to their search
engine that is still available to the
stay if you go to google and type in
webdriver torso you will find the
familiar interchanging rectangles in the
top left corner feel free to go check it
out for yourself if you have some free
time at this point you would think all
of the hype and mystery would have died
down
well you'd be wrong this information
didn't stop theorists from believing
that Google themselves were hiding the
truth above the channel
there is one thing in common between
every video on the channel between the
red white and blue colors the Eiffel
Tower and the cartoon block behind the
French pay wall it was obvious to people
this channel had something to do with
France people even went as far as
speculated that the videos were a tool
for French spies to get access to
information regardless of the claims
made by YouTube to this day there are
numerous individuals who still aren't
convinced that webdriver torso is simply
a test in general although their
response of the channel being an upload
quality chequered sounds completely
plausible some people still refuse to
believe the answers given to them but of
course only Google knows the true answer
but what are your thoughts on this
internet mystery are you content that
it's finally solved or do you think
there's more to the story let me know
your thoughts in the comments down below
also I create videos and internet
mysteries on a regular basis so if
that's something you're into please make
sure to like this video and subscribe so
you don't miss out on similar content in
the future but as always thank you for
watching and good night
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you