<p><em>The Graphics Interchange Format was a technological solution developed by Stephen Wilhite.</em></p><ul><li>In the 1980s, Wilhite was the lead engineer on a team at CompuServe tasked with finding a way to quickly distribute “high-quality, high-resolution graphics” in color.</li><li>Developing this became an obsession for Wilhite, who would perfect the product at home.</li><li>The result, GIF, was released in 1987, but its commercial success is due in large part to Netscape, which, in 1995 added the ability for GIFs to loop.</li></ul>

The GIF backstory

<ul><li>With the rise of GIFs came a historic internet debate: whether it’s pronounced “gif” (with a hard G, like “gift”) or “jif.” </li><li><strong>In 2012, Oxford American Dictionaries named “GIF” its US Word of the Year, accepting both pronunciations.</strong></li><li>In 2013, Stephen Wilhite<em> </em>old The New York Times, “It’s a soft ‘G,’ pronounced ‘jif.’ End of story.</li><li>It was a baller move, but despite his clarification, the debate seemingly continues to this day.</li></ul>

GIF vs. JIF

<p><strong>The most ubiquitous platform for GIFs today is Giphy, used by 700m</strong>+ people and said to come 2nd only to Google in search engine activity.</p><p>According to Giphy, the 1st GIF ever uploaded to the internet, by Stephen Wilhite himself, was of a plane over rolling clouds.</p>

The impact of GIFs

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The man behind the looping graphics synonymous with internet culture passed away this week.

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

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The enormous impact of Stephen Wilhite, inventor of the GIF

The GIF backstory

GIF vs. JIF

The impact of GIFs

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