This behavior began to spread to websites that hosted GIFs, such as BuzzFeed, Imgur and Giphy.
Similar to Myspace, people used GIFs on Tumblr to express their personality, but instead of sharing blinking text, people created short clips of their favorite movies, tv shows and online videos. But as Tumblr began to accelerate in 2009, usage of GIFs returned. As Myspace’s popularity faded and video sites like YouTube grew to help people share short videos, the GIF began to decline in relevance and its usage was confined to niche internet forums. This behavior further accelerated with the popularity of Myspace.Įntire websites were dedicated to helping people find “bling” to add to their Myspace page. GeoCities helped millions of people create their own websites, and website owners often turned to GIFs like rotating menus, bullet points of fire or 3D animations to personalize their websites and entertain their visitors. Many of the earliest animating GIFs were similar in appearance to Microsoft clip-art and were sometimes used as navigational elements in early websites. Second life of the GIF: video entertainment lite While animation support for GIFs was introduced in 1989, many images hosted via the format weren’t yet animating - it was simply a more efficient way of hosting static images. It quickly gained support, especially in web browsers. With its introduction in 1987, the GIF began as an image format with lossless data compression that made images smaller in file size than alternatives like BMP. First life of the GIF: image hosting technology While its technical aspects haven’t changed, GIFs have taken on three different lives - and usage of GIFs has never been higher than it is today. As Andy Grove, one of Intel’s founders, said, “only the paranoid survive.” Technologies that do not change are resigned to obsolescence.īut the GIF, which celebrates its 30th birthday this summer, has endured as a format.
We’re on the fifth standard of HTML and have evolved from FLV to MP4 as the dominant video streaming format on the web. In the last 10 years alone, our phones gained 20x the processing power and added capabilities from multitasking to visual messaging. David McIntosh is the chief executive and co-founder of Tenor.įew technologies survive more than five years - let alone 30 years - without significant change.