It was invented before social networks and even world wide web. Between the rise and fall of popularity, it has become, more than just a cultural phenomenon, a substitute for everything from ideas to reactions that cannot be automatically codified. Graphics Interchange Format, commonly known as GIF, Not only has the internet changed, it has grown with it. It has had many ages and now Giphy, one of the biggest GIF sharing platforms, thinks its popularity is definitely over.
To understand the impact of moving images, you have to go back to June 15, 1987. At that time, Stephen Wilheit was working at CompuServe – one of the first online services to provide an international Internet connection – and he was looking for a way to compress images without significant loss in quality. Solution: GIF, a simple file format for low-resolution images.
Even in the early days of the internet, GIFs weren’t static. In the ’90s, Netscape Navigator – which was the version of Browser Pioneering until it was overtaken by Internet Explorer in 1998 – it was the first browser to allow a user to interact through images on a website rather than text. These images played infinitely, and when the animation finished, it automatically restarted.
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Emily Brontë is a journalist and feature writer specialising in culture, entertainment, literature, and current affairs. She is dedicated to producing clear, accurate reporting that helps readers stay informed about developments in the UK and around the world.
