The company threatened to sue anyone who made software that could create or read GIFs without paying for a license. In 1994, IT giant Unisys claimed to own the LZW protocol that Wilhite used in the GIF specification. The file format also became the center of one of the web's first patent disputes. The dancing 7-Up mascot " Cool Spot" also made a unconscionable number of appearances, making it perhaps the first viral #brand GIF. The " Dancing Baby" becoming one the web's first true viral video sensations. Soon, " under construction" GIFs adorned practically every site on the web. "I didn't ask Steve to put in as much extensibility as he did, but I'm glad he did," Trevor says. That enabled the team behind the Netscape browser to create the animated GIF standard in 1995. But the most important thing about the format was that Wilhite had the foresight to make it extensible, so that other developers could add custom types of information to GIFs. And because portions of an image could be transparent, meaning an image could blend into the background or be fit together with other images in interesting ways, it enabled web designers to create more complex layouts. The GIF was perfect for displaying logos, line art, and charts on the web for all the same reasons that Wilhite first developed the format. Not bad for an image standard that pre-dates the web itself. The GIF does double duty as both expression and as badge of digital literacy. Others, like Sean Spicer disappearing into the bushes-itself a remix of a popular Simpsons GIF-serve up political satire. Some, like Orson Welles clapping or Michael Jackson eating popcorn, have become instantly recognizable shorthand. But today they're ubiquitous, and not in some nostalgic sense.Īnimated GIFs have transcended their obscure 1990s roots to become a key part of day-to-day digital communication. Such mainstream approval would have seemed unthinkable even a decade ago, when GIFs had the cultural cachet of blinking text and embedded MIDI files. Today, Twitter has a GIF button and even Apple added GIF search to its iOS messaging app. Yep, it turns out the GIF is a millennial, too.Īt the same time, 30 makes the GIF ancient in web years, which feels a bit weird, given that the proliferation of animated GIFs is a relatively recent phenomenon. The web's favorite file format just turned 30.
0 kommentar(er)
