Stanford Student Creates 'YouTube Instant'

LOS ANGELES — A Stanford University computer science student has parlayed a bet with his roommate into instant fame and a possible job with YouTube.

Feross Aboukhadijeh, 19, told CNET.com that he became inspired after testing out Google Instant, the web giant's new predictive search results feature, to create YouTube Instant.

He told his roommate, "I bet you I can build YouTube Instant in an hour." And his roommate took him up on the bet.

Three hours later, YouTube Instant was born. The site lets people search the YouTube video database in real time. After posting the work on his Facebook page on the night of Sept. 16, he woke up the next day to a media frenzy.

Aboukhadijeh had countless e-mails congratulating him, interview requests, a server flooded with web traffic, a Wikipedia entry in his name, and even a job offer from YouTube CEO Chad Hurley via Twitter, according to the report.

Hurley and Aboukhadijeh are scheduled to meet today at YouTube's San Bruno, Calif., headquarters.

For the complete CNET report, click here.

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