Manage Media

YouTube caters to a massive community of hundreds of millions of people around the world. And despite features very different from Facebook and Twitter, the site continues its explosive growth.

Part of the fun of photography is sharing your images with friends and family. With digital photos you have some 21st century options: e-mailing your images or sharing them online.

Just as cable TV revolutionized viewing habits by providing hundreds of specialized channels, video on the Internet is having a similar impact. You can find literally hundreds of websites that offer video on every subject imaginable.

MP3, a file format that shrinks audio data while preserving the quality, has made the distribution of near-CD quality music as easy as a click of your mouse.

If you're a music fan, there's no better source than the Internet. A high-speed connection and a good set of speakers or headphones turn your computer into a digital jukebox.

Using your computer to listen to the radio may seem like a strange thing to do, until you realize that there are thousands of radio stations around the world. By putting their programming online, these stations now reach a global audience.

To experience multimedia, you need a computer equipped with sound and video cards and special software programs called plug-ins. A plug-in, sometimes referred to as a player, extends the capabilities of your web browser, turning your computer into a radio, TV or game machine.