A big news day for GIFs: Image-hosting site Imgur has released a video-to-GIF tool, and the GIF search engine Giphy announced raising $17 million in new funding. What do these two tech stories have in common? GIFs are being touted as the next wave in mobile-media consumption.
Today, GIFs officially go corporate.
Over at Gigaom, Janko Roettgers reports on why GIFs have become the hottest commodity for online publishers—nobody has the attention span to handle watching videos, nevertheless listen to audio:
People are increasingly consuming their news and feeds on mobile devices, on the go — and chances are that they don’t always have their headphones on….Short, shareable clips that combine moving images with big, bold text, easily consumable without the need to actually listen. GIFs are really just a natural extension of this phenomenon. At their core, they are videos without sound, easily consumable when waiting in the line at Starbucks or during the morning public transportation commute.
Just another milestone in the cultural shift from our verbal to visual culture (from blogging to image-sharing).
{ 3 comments }
i’m so glad someone invened gifs
Yep.
I’m weary of loose handshakes today and I veer on the overly tight kind.
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