Webdriver Torso

Webdriver Torso is a mysterious YouTube Channel which was created back on March 7, 2013, by Google themselves. Ever since google created it they would upload mostly 11 second videos every single minute, and still continue to do it to this day. As of August 30, 2015, it has uploaded over 381,0076 videos and over 70,000 people have subscribed to it; however many haven't, probably because they don't want their sub boxes to be flooded with their videos all the time. Though initially a place of speculation for viewers, YouTube/Google have humorously acknowledged that this channel exists as an internal testing utility for YouTube's performance.

Typical Videos
The dime difference between the uploads is usually between 1 and 20 minutes, and never more than an hour. Most are 11 seconds long, although they can be 1 minute, 5 minutes, or 25 minutes. All are slideshows. The 11 second long videos have 9 slides. Each slide is about 1 second long, has a solid white background, and contains two solid color opaque rectangles, one red and the other blue. Both rectangles have a random size, shape, and position in the slide. When the two overlap, the red rectangle always appears over the blu eone, and on rare occasions, the red rectangles completely covers up the blue one. Each slide has random computer generated wave tone. In the corner of each video it says "aqua.flv - slide, (numbe rwith four digits)." Early videos were called "aqua", then were changed to "tmp" followed by random characters.

Unusual Videos
The channel has three unusual videos. In one of the rectangle videos, tmpRkRI85, the red rectangle, becomes a silhouette of Rick Astley dancing in the second half of the video. The video "00014" is a video recorded in Paris that showed the Eiffel Tower being lit up. At the end of the video, the camera is put down, and the Webdriver Torso Facebook page is visible for a few frames. The last one, "0.455442373793" i sonly viewable in France, requires a payment of 1,99 euro to watch, and is only payable with a French credit card. It shows an episode of the American adult cartoon show Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

Similar Channels
The YouTube channels "Webdriver YPP", "Ekaterina Basic", and "Webdriver IVPE", have similar content. Some of the videos made by "Webdriver YPP" have random phrases, such as "Jim knows about the glass" and "Contact his highness and ask about the pen."

Speculation
Prior to YouTube's confirmation of the channel as a test channel, there was some speculation about the identity and content of the videos.

Hypothosis
Hypothesis' about the channel included spy messages, contact by extraterrestrial life-forms, and construction plans.

"Matei" Speculation
On the video "00014" Webdriver Torso commented "Matei is highly intelligent." The "Matei" being mentioned is unknown. Basarab Matei, Matei Mancas, Matei Gruber, and Matei Ciocarlie have been suspected. A few months later, Webdriver Torso stated that "I am Matei."

Cicada 3301 Speculation
See Also:  Cicada 3301 on Wikipedia 

See Also:  Uncovering Cicada 3301 Wiki 

The combination of the cryptic videos with the use of the phrase "highly intelligent" in the "Matei" comment led many to believe that Webdriver Torso was a part of the ongoing Cicada 3301 recruitment puzzle. Cicada 3301 had previously posted messages with hidden codes in an attempt to recruit "highly intelligent individuals."

Solving the Mystery
The channel was later revealed to be a quality testing channel, (see below).

Soggetto Ventuno's Discoveries
An Italian blogger named "Soggetto Ventuno" discovered that WEbdriver Torso and all similar channels belong to a network of accounts called "ytuploadtestpartner_torso." Ventuno then discovered some other accounts with similar videos, many of which were pulled or made private after Ventuno's investigations were published. The netwoerk linked to a Facebook page and a Twitter page, which have now both been taken down. The Facebook page had mentioned "Johannes Leitner" a Google Zurich employee. Leitner was friends wtih another employee, "Matei Gruber." "Matei" was mentioned on 00014, (see above). Ventuno then compared scenes from pulled videos with GoogleZurich photots, and noticed matching things, indicating that the pulled videos were recorded at Google Zurich, and that the channel and all similar channels were runf rom Google Zurich.

Purpose of Videos
The videos are made to test YouTube video quality. After creation the videos are uploaded to YouTube. The uploaded videos are then compared to the videos before they were uploaded, to see how much quality was lost.

YouTube's/Google's Reply
When YouTube was asked about Webdriver Torso, the replied" "We're never gonna give you uploading that's slow or loses video quality,a nd wer'e never gonna let you down pby playing YouTube in poor video quality. That's why wer're always running tests like Webdriver Torso."  This is a reference to Rick AStley's song "Never Gonna Give You Up."

Easter Eggs
See Also:  List of Google Easter Eggs on Wikipedia 

When "Webdriver Torso" is searched into Google or YouTube, the Google logo and YouTube, the search results will both look like a Webdriver Torso video. Another Easter Egg is that in the Android L developer builds, the Android Version Easter Egg is a reference to Webdriver Torso videos.