Animated GIFs are small animation based on successively displayed images.
In my opinion the most engaging form of content on the web because
- they are short fast snippets means they get straight to the point
- they're looped which means that you are hit with the joke over and over again.
- they are also eye catching as they are animated without the user even having to do anything on the page.
In the meme dungeons of the Internet (4Chan and other forum boards), GIFS are prevalent. However they never really get critical cross over into the mainstream Internet as they lack the important ingredients;
- hard to replicate or create,
- Facebook currently doesn’t allow this type of file for good reason to, if you remember all those heinous designed Myspace Pages, most of them were GIF.
However it is good to see BrownCardigan and The Vine Best of the Interweb are pushing these out there.
