Google receives a visit from the queen

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II joined the Web 2.0 generation on Thursday when she uploaded a clip to YouTube for the first time.

The monarch took the leap into the wired world as she and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, were shown around Google's London headquarters, which are located down the road from Buckingham Palace. Editors' note: This story was originally published on Silicon.com as a photo gallery. Click here to see all the images.)

Joining the ranks of teenage narcissists worldwide, the queen posted her YouTube video, a 1968 reception for British Olympians, to the video-sharing site's Royal Channel.

Her whirlwind induction continued with a face-to-face meeting with the less than regally named daveyboyz, aka David Bass, and U.K. YouTube superstars Peter Oakley and Lauren Luke.

The Royal Channel launched in December 2007 and received more than 1 million channel views in its first week, making it one of the fastest-growing channels of all time.

Although she has admitted to not even owning a computer four years ago, the queen has a history of embracing technology. In 1953, she allowed television cameras inside Westminster Abbey during a state occasion for her coronation, and in 1976, she became the first monarch to send an e-mail during a visit to an army base.

Google European President Nikesh Arora headed up a group of 50 staff and senior management in a meet and greet with the queen.

The tour immersed the royals in all things Google, with a demonstration of the ubiquitous search engine, a tour of Google Earth, and a talk on Google advertising and its contribution to U.K. industry. The London office includes Google's global mobile-engineering center, and it also handles product management, marketing, operations, legal issues, communications, sales, and finance.

Her majesty did not leave Google empty-handed, having been presented with a gift of Google code printed on aluminum by Arora.

Her visit puts her in tune with the people, as it's estimated that British residents spend more time online than those of any other European country, with an average of 33 hours per month online, visiting 3,252 pages.

Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh also met winners of the Doodle 4 Google contest, which asked young people from across the United Kingdom to design their own doodle. Google marked the visit with its trademark topical Google doodle on its home page, with the second "g" in Google replaced by the Queen's head and the "e" topped off with a crown.

Nick Heath of Silicon.com reported from London.