The narration discusses the history and evolution of Reddit, a popular social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website. The narration begins by introducing Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman, American University students who had an idea for a mobile food ordering service in 2005. However, the idea was ahead of its time and they decided to abandon it.
Instead, they decided to create a news aggregator website, initially called "snoo". The name was later changed to "reddit", a portmanteau of the phrase "read it", meaning "I've read it on Reddit". The website was launched on June 23, 2005, and the first post was submitted by Ohanian himself, titled "The Downing Street memo". Over the following months, both Ohanian and Huffman created numerous fake accounts to populate the website with interesting links, giving the illusion of a thriving online community.
Reddit was in fierce competition with another similar website known as Digg. Despite Digg being more popular initially, Reddit gained a significant advantage in August 2010 when Digg launched a controversial redesign, which alienated its core user base and triggered a mass migration to Reddit. The narration concludes with the statement that Reddit is now preparing for a major overhaul of its own.
Here are some key facts extracted from the text:
1. Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman founded Reddit in 2005 as a news aggregator website.
2. Reddit's name is a portmanteau of "read it" and its mascot is called Snoo, a portmanteau of "what's new".
3. Reddit surpassed its competitor Digg in popularity after Digg launched a controversial redesign in 2010 that drove many users away.
4. Reddit users have sponsored various events and causes, such as the Jamaican bobsled team, a NASCAR race car, and a lunar lander.
5. Reddit users have also solved some mysteries and recovered some lost media, such as the film Cry Baby Lane and the carbon monoxide poisoning case.
6. Reddit has some site-specific memes and mysteries, such as the old reddit switcharoo and the A858 code.
7. The frequency of reaching the top comments on Reddit depends more on the timing than the content of the comment, and many comments mention Hitler or Nazis.
8. The word "reddit" existed before the website, as a Latin word meaning "it returns" or "one who returns", and as a surname and a punchline to an old joke.