GIF history: where they come from and where they are going

Funny, witty, curious... GIFs have already become a regular resource in social networks and messaging applications and have become part of our daily lives and jokes.It is an image format that has evolved significantly throughout its history and is experiencing a new awakening.

In fact, to find its origins, we must go back more than twenty years ago .A moment in which they had little to do with what we know today and an evolution that we could not stop review.So let's find out where they come from and try to catch a glimpse of where they are going.

What is a GIF

The word GIF responds to the acronym of Graphics Interchange Format , or what is the same, graphic exchange format.A term for the graphic format used in the network for both static images and animations.In more concrete terms, it supports 8 bits per pixel and allows you to display images with up to 256 colors simultaneously-limited by a palette of 16 million-.

This particularity makes it a perfect ally of infographics, drawings and illustrations with solid colored areas; but it also limits it when it comes to displaying photographs, which it is forced to adapt.However, its compression system (LZW) does not lead to loss of image quality at the time of reduce the size of a file .

The animations that we know today are a modification of the original format, which needs a CME (Extension of Control Graphics for its acronym in English) to see several images in a single place and same timeline, in short, which creates a sensation of movement.This representation lends itself to being manipulated and to create hundreds of different loops , one of the great reasons for success beyond its technical characteristics.

A little history

The GIFs were born in the late 80s by Steve Wilhite, who invented them when he worked at CompuServe, one of the first online service providers in the United States.They were born as a general exchange format, as a kind of low-weight image and of low resolution that the browsers of the moment soon adopted and that came to replace the RLE format , in black and white.

Its compression possibilities were those that made it take off initially, even in spite of its technical limitations.The slowness of the modems and connections of that time also helped its popularization, since the format allowed users to see the images without having to wait long loading times.This, in fact, made them one of the first web standards .

Their options when it comes to representing funny animations were not long in coming And it was precisely these that saved them despite the multiple detractors that came out in the mid-90s, when they began to be upset by other competitors, such as SWF, PNG and JPG .

They managed to survive as small illustrations on the move thanks to the millions of people who used them to decorate their MySpace and Geocites pages .Sites like Reddit and 4chan also had a lot to do with their evolution.Two decades later, it was precisely the users who led them to this new golden age we are in.In fact, in 2012, the Oxford University Press of the United States chose GIF as "Word of the Year."

A new awakening

We currently find animated GIFs on platforms ranging from instant messaging applications such as Telegram and WhatsApp, to banners and social networks.Even communities such as Facebook have enabled specific buttons to include them during our conversations on Messenger. Twitter arrived in 2014 and on Instagram they were the kings of the mambo for a long time.

There they landed in 2013, the same year that Google Photos began to create them automatically .However, the incursion of Stories and others updates have left them relegated to a discreet background.And even the work utilities like Slack have not hesitated when betting on them.

Others like Flipboard even allow the loop reproduction of their spots to GIF mode, and even Tumblr has dared to go further including a specific search engine for this type of file.Of course, there is no lack of online pages and apps that try to make it a little easier when to create them and find them.Giphy Cam, 5SecondApp, GIFS.com and Imgur are some of the most representative.

And it is not surprising if we consider that they are used to illustrate fun everyday situations, evoke the scene of a famous movie on its anniversary, remember the most famous cats on the network, illustrate information and even to offer a plus to customers .This is just what Booking did a couple of summers ago, when it turned some of the pictures posted on Instagram by its users, into fun holiday GIFs.

Future trends

Finally, we could not stop talking about the more immediate future of GIFs.Yes, the logical tendency will be to continue modifying the format, trying to make it more realistic .It is precisely what happened A few months ago, when we began to see some who had been added a pair of white bands to create an effect of three-dimensionality , as can be seen in the image above.

The inclusion of specific buttons in applications that we use regularly is another of the directions that seems already marked.Not to mention the birth of artists specialized in this type of format , something that is already beginning to happen.We are left with examples like Guillaume Kurkdian, a French graphic designer who uses them in the purest style of infographics .

Rebecca Mock also has a very special way of creating them.Basically he uses them to give movement to "drawings" that represent everyday scenes; perhaps the best example of the additional possibilities of this format that are still to be exploited.ALCrego uses them in a very similar way, although it is based on street photographs.Robin Davey-with his geometric and colorful animations- And James Curran-who creates GIFs of the places he visits-are others that deserve to be included in this list.

Moreover, they are also used to consume porn in a somewhat different way than we are used to.It's just what we found in Yummy Porn For Girls and Porn Gifs for Women.much more concentrated visualization designed for women, although everything is a matter of taste.In short, a way to take advantage of them will only be limited by our imagination.

Images | Flickr: Codex41.

Banksy's most emblematic works come to life in the form of GIFs

Comments

Internet of plants: a tomato knows as much about networks as you

The possibility of plant species communicating through complex networks, what some scientists have called the internet of plants , is an issue that has been discussed for a long time, at least 20 years.It was in 1997 when the scientist Suzanne Simard , from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver (Canada), published a study in the journal Nature on how Forest plants use complex systems where species exchange nutrients, send warning signals and relate to the environment. Although there is no scientific consensus, several investigations seem to support this hypothesis.If confirmed, as we read in a fascinating report by the Sinc Agency, the forests would act as huge structures that are articulated under the soil through a network in which factors invisible to the human eye interact and can determine the future of the climate.Understanding how it works is the challenge that even science faces. internet of plants and the wisdom of forests The premise of Suzanne Simard ...

New setbacks for conspiranoicos: radiofrequencies do not affect health

New evidence published by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Radio Frequency and Health (CCARS) in its 2016 Radio Frequency and Health Report indicates that there are no adverse health effects derived of exposure to radio frequencies emitted by mobile phone antennas or radio and television broadcasting.No evidence has been found on the danger in wireless systems (Wi-Fi) or airport scanners. The new 2016 Radio Frequency and Health Report collects, updates and analyzes the scientific evidence on the subject for the period between January 2013 and June 2016. radio frequencies are not dangerous According to the conclusions of the report " the critical analysis of the evidence supports that there are no technical or sanitary reasons that justify the arbitrary and discretionary imposition of more demanding exposure limits than those recommended by WHO-ICNIRP and the Union European ", while the application of more restrictive limits" would imply increasing the n...

Amazon Prime Video arrives in Spain: this is all you need to know

That during the last years there has been a change in the way we enjoy audiovisual content is an obvious reality, as reflected by the huge popularity of streaming services like Netflix and the like.A context in which new competitors are constantly added and that, after the landing of this company in our country just over a year ago, is in full transformation. In fact, today we have learned of the incursion of a new protagonist in this area.Yes, because Amazon Prime Video has just arrived in Spain .A landing that takes place only two weeks away that of HBO, which culminates in a 2016 sown of changes.But, what exactly does it consist of? What advantages and disadvantages does it have compared to the "of its kind"? WHAT AMAZON PRIME VIDEO OFFERS The type, quality and quantity of movies and series offered by the service will be key when determining your success.A catalog a priori smaller than that of HBO and Netflix, but in which we find titles like Seinfield , Into...

What we know and what we suspect in the new Facebook algorithm change

"In my time, we read the newspaper in Facebook ".By 2020, nostalgia has taken over billions of people.In its memory, 2018, when Facebook stopped being Facebook to become Facebook again.Paraiso of engagement for brands and media, land paid for clickbaits and fake news, the social network of Mark Zuckerberg has given a rudder to his algorithm. He wants to return to his origins .And this is what will happen. Related If something goes well, to change it.40.653 million dollars entered in 2017.More than 2.100 million active users per month, a quarter of the world's population.But Zuckerberg is not one of those, of which they are.Want a Facebook with more social connections between people and less presence of brands and media .And what do your users want? Nearly two-thirds of American adults consume news on social networks.More than half do so on their Facebook walls.Pew Research Center data points to a clear trend: Facebook is becoming a media platform.54% of Facebook u...

Twitter shows the best of ourselves (it wasn't always going to be the worst)

In the era of social networks, accustomed to interact daily with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google or WhatsApp, we forget that these tools are phenomenal in the History of Humanity capable of mobilize hundreds of thousands of people in very different geographical locations in a matter of hours or even minutes. Already in the past, Twitter has asserted its more social dimension to mobilize people, companies or organizations and also, from a broader perspective, feelings of solidarity and support or also of rejection and repulses towards causes with an important mediatic impact.Recently, Twitter was once again the engine of solidarity after Dortmund's explosions as the Borussia Dortmund team bus passed on its way to the local stadium on the occasion of the Champions League match between the Borussia and the Monaco. These explosions did not have the devastating effect that they could have caused , so that everything remained in a major social commotion at international lev...

Most apps for children violate your privacy

Do you know if apps with which children enjoy their safety? A team of researchers from the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) of the University of Berkeley has studied compliance with the Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in these mobile applications for the little ones, through a scalable dynamic analysis that allows the automatic evaluation of privacy behaviors of Android apps. After studying 5,855 applications aimed at children, the research concludes that most of these apps, 57%, violate the privacy of their users mainly due to the use of data by third parties. apps for children and privacy Although many apps offer options in their configuration to respect the federal law that protects minors in the United States, by disabling tracking, their results suggest that a majority of applications either do not use these options or propagate them in wrong way. In addition, researchers believe that 19% of apps for children send user IDs to third parties to show ...

Are social networks damaging democracy?

The revelations according to which Russian agents inserted ads on Facebook that tried to influence the 2016 US elections raise a disturbing question: is Facebook bad for democracy? As an expert in the social and political repercussions of technology, I think that the problem is not exclusively from Facebook, but that it is much broader: Social networks are weakening some of the conditions that have historically enabled the existence of national states democratic. I understand that it is a dramatic statement, and I do not expect anyone to believe it immediately, but considering that almost half of all potential voters received false news promoted by the Russians in Facebook is an argument that must be debated. Associate Professor of Philosophy, Director of Center for Professional and Applied Ethics, University of North Carolina-Charlotte How we create a shared reality Let's start with two concepts: the "imagined community" and the "bubble filter". ...

This is how visual challenges star in some of the most viral content

Constantly, we all receive in our mail, our WhatsApp or our Facebook account, games that try to test our ingenuity, imagination or visual skill.There are a thousand types, more fun or darker.But they have one thing in common: we cannot avoid trying them and see if we are able to solve them .This is how the visual challenges star in some of the most viral content of the network. Visual challenges, why are we crazy? The visual challenges are games.So, they attend to this playful and fun part that people have no choice but to feed from time to time.They are pure and hard entertainment, with no more pretensions, and that desire to Having fun represents one of the main features that are sought when surfing the Internet . Another of the qualities for which they succeed is because they challenge the mind directly.Human beings love that feeling of feeling a little troubled, somewhat lost, but convinced that there is a solution to that enigma to which, sooner or later, it will come.Rathe...

Everything (much) that Google and Facebook know about you

The Cambridge Analytica scandal It is one of the most serious violations of privacy in history.More than 50 million confidential data were obtained from Facebook without the consent of the users.Mark Zuckerberg himself admitted the flaws in the platform and announce some important changes. Related Cambridge Analytica is a company that used the data extracted from Facebook accounts to develop a powerful software capable of influencing the elections of several countries.It did so through the creation of political ads The research has revealed that the company began collecting personal data from users in 2014 without their authorization. The sudden discovery of privacy Many people now wonder that (and how much) information about them is really in the hands of the social network.The campaign #deletefacebook , to unsubscribe from the platform is having a lot of resonance.that the world has now discovered that the big multinationals know a lot about us.Good morning, green sleev...

Network One Online

Search This Blog