How did the founders expect users to interact with the platform?

The founders of YouTube, Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim, envisioned several key ways users would interact with the platform:

### **1. **Uploading and Sharing Videos:**
   - **User-Generated Content**: The founders anticipated that users would upload their own videos, ranging from personal clips to creative projects. They expected the platform to be a space where individuals could easily share their content with a global audience.
   - **Ease of Use**: By making the upload process straightforward, they hoped users would find it easy to contribute and participate in content creation without needing specialized skills or equipment.

### **2. **Discovering and Watching Videos:**
   - **Video Discovery**: The founders expected users to use the platform to discover new videos based on their interests. They anticipated that the search functionality and categorization would help users find content relevant to their preferences.
   - **On-Demand Viewing**: Users were expected to watch videos on demand, choosing what to view at their convenience rather than adhering to a scheduled programming model.

### **3. **Engaging with Content:**
   - **Comments and Feedback**: The founders envisioned a highly interactive environment where users could leave comments on videos, providing feedback and engaging in discussions with video creators and other viewers.
   - **Ratings and Likes**: The ability to rate videos using thumbs-up or thumbs-down was intended to give users a way to express their opinions and help highlight popular or well-received content.

### **4. **Creating and Managing Channels:**
   - **Personal Channels**: Users were expected to create their own channels to organize and showcase their videos. This would allow users to build a personal or brand presence on the platform, curating their content and managing their uploads.
   - **Subscriptions**: By subscribing to channels, users could follow their favorite content creators and receive notifications about new uploads, fostering ongoing engagement and relationship-building with creators.

### **5. **Sharing Videos Across the Web:**
   - **Embedding and Sharing**: The founders anticipated that users would embed YouTube videos on blogs, forums, and other websites. This feature was designed to make it easy for content to spread beyond the YouTube platform and reach a broader audience.

### **6. **Participating in a Community:**
   - **Building Communities**: The founders envisioned YouTube as a platform where users could build and participate in communities centered around shared interests. The interactive features, such as comments and channel subscriptions, were intended to support the creation of social connections and communities around content.
   - **Content Creation and Collaboration**: They also expected that users would collaborate with each other, either by creating joint videos or by engaging in discussions and collaborations through comments and responses.

### **7. **Exploring Diverse Content:**
   - **Variety of Content**: The founders aimed for YouTube to host a wide range of video content, from personal vlogs to professional productions. They anticipated that users would explore and engage with diverse types of content, reflecting a broad spectrum of interests and creativity.

### **8. **Discovering Viral Content:**
   - **Viral Sharing**: By providing easy sharing and embedding options, the founders hoped that content would go viral, spreading rapidly across the web and generating widespread attention. This was seen as a way to amplify popular content and trends.

In summary, the founders of YouTube expected users to interact with the platform by uploading and sharing videos, discovering and watching content, engaging with videos through comments and ratings, creating and managing personal channels, sharing videos across the web, participating in communities, exploring diverse content, and contributing to the viral spread of popular videos. These interactions were central to the vision of YouTube as an open, user-driven video-sharing platform.