fyi [links, dec 2015 – shower thoughts edition]

Some more or less recent stuff, focussed on GIFs. Or other web animations. Or something else loosely connected to that.

Redditor minimaxir did some great work and created a huge database of Reddit comments. Based on that, he analysed the ratings for GIFs in comparison with other image types and YouTube videos on Reddit for the last years.

If you need to explain GIFs to your granny (and she speaks German), then try to do it with this radio interview on Deutschlandradio. They talk about some popular examples (Confused Travolta, for instance) and how they fit into several categories of GIF animations. Oh yeah, and they speak of yet another GIF “revival”…

I did’t come along any more linkworthy GIF-related stuff this month. So, instead of a typical link list, here are some “Shower Thoughts” and other ideas from Reddit about GIFs:

• I wonder if the current generation is better at lipreading because of gifs.
• Deaf people see in Gifs.
• The phrase “animated gif” is now redundant. The phrase “stationary gif” would be far more useful, as it would signal people to brace for disappointment.
• Wouldn’t it be awful if they started putting ads at the start of GIFs?
• It’s 2015 and one of the most popular sites on the internet is mostly text and low resolution gifs.
• Imgur should have a secret Santa .gif exchange
• Animated GIFs have revived silent film.
• Thanks to the popularity of gifs, we are living in the golden age of silent films.
• In the Harry Potter universe, you could probably get a .gif tattooed on you.
• Playboy magazine would be full of gifs instead of jpegs in the Harry Potter universe
• We need a new TL;DR. How about TS;DL (Too slow; didn’t look) for those times when the picture or gif takes too damn long to load!
• Holding down the “print screen” button should create a video or gif.
• A still picture is 2D. Time is a dimension. Therefore an animated GIF is 3D.
• Should you make a GIF where every frame is a GIF, would it become a 4d tesseract?
• If a .gif is is loaded on an unopened tab does it still play? [Note: I should have had a look at Reddit before I wrote the Schrödinger’s GIF article]
• Commenting with a .gif is like using advanced heiroglyphs.
• In the future, people will say “oh, gif, jif,” instead of “oh, tomāto, tomäto.”
• Few people care about sources until it comes to porn gifs
• GIFs that stop too early are clickbait for YouTube videos
• I hope my death doesn’t become a popular .gif on the internet.
• Everyone uses OC reaction gifs of themselves
• Put animated .gifs on postage stamps. Watch stamp collecting become a billion-dollar industry.
• A word/phrase for adding sound in your head while watching a gif or other silent video

fyi [links, may 2015]

Some more or less recent stuff, focussed on GIFs. Or other web animations. Or something else loosely connected to that.

“Why GIFs Are the Words of the Future“ (Video of Giphy COO Adam Leibsohn at PSFK 2015)
I don’t fully agree with what Leibsohn is predicting. Basically he follows the already known idea that the development of our communication goes from text to symbols to animated GIFs. No new idea, of course, but he draws the conclusion that this means the end of the communication with words. I’ll explain my disagreement with this assumption in an upcoming blogpost.

“US Congress publishes press release made of copyright-violating animated GIFs“
This is the press release, and it is still online including all the GIFs.
Interesting how the congress is criticised for something the whole internet does without legal concerns. And isn’t posting GIFs fair use? This is actually an interesting issue: What are the legal circumstances for GIF usage in various juristictions? I found some interesting thoughts on that topic.

“How GIFs can be the best answer for content on Smart Watches“
Al Jazeera is experimenting with GIFs as notifications on smart watches. It’s still in development.

“Concept Versus Format — it’s Time to Redefine What “GIF” Means.“
Though I expected something else when I read the headline, the article is worth a read. But it’s actually more about video than about GIF.

“An Experiment to Solve the Animated GIF Mobile Problem“
J. S. Hapins explains a way zeega.com may use to avoid huge GIF file sizes by converting them into a JPEG “film strip” and play it via JavaScript (this is not animated JPEG, it is actually a strip of single frames). Just another example how an image provider turns a GIF into a no-GIF in favour of webspace and traffic.

“GIF it!“ wants to present GIFs via lenticular images in exhibitions at various places. The first one is planned to take place in Paris in June.

APNG support was added to WebKit.

An APNG encoder for FFmpeg
If I understand it right we might soon be able to either play APNG with VLC or even convert videos into APNG… I really hope that this will come true.