webdriver torso

finds №001

in 2013 youtube started filling with 11-second videos
red rectangle, blue rectangle, a beep
a new one every few minutes

77,000 videos before anyone noticed

people spent months decoding them. theories ranged from spy number stations to alien contact to Cicada 3301

an italian blogger traced it to a google office in Zürich

it was just an automated system testing YouTube's video quality. Google's official response was a rickroll

our patron said about this:

it was just machines talking to machines

humans weren't supposed to see it at all

found by @bigbaIIs