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Facebook tests GIFs in comments like it's 1995
It's time for Facebook to fully embrace the animated GIF. The social network is about to start testing the ability to add GIFs to comments and your feed will never be the same.
YouTube is testing a GIF sharing option
Click on the "share" button under any YouTube video, and you'll get three simple options: Share (for a URL), Embed (for HTML code) and Email (take a guess), but Google's video streaming site is about to get one more -- animated GIF. YouTube hasn't officially announced the new feature, but it seems to be testing it on select channels. Click on any video from Good Mythical Morning or The Idea Channel (the only two channels we found with the feature activated), for instance, and you'll be given the opportunity to make a captioned, six-second GIF like the one above. It's pretty easy; YouTube starts the GIF at the point of the video that was playing when you click "share" and allows it to be adjusted via timestamp or visual slider. Want to check it out? Click on either of the two above channels and have at it. Oh, and let us know in the comments if you find any other GIF-ready channels.
The animated GIF as art: Google puts six loopy images on display
It's easy to sneer at the idea of artists piggybacking on the GIF craze, but Google is taking the whole thing pretty seriously, especially now that Google+ supports the animated file format. The search giant is collaborating with the Saatchi Gallery in West London to host a number of looped moving images, displayed on giant TV screens, which it feels are worthy of public recognition. There's a hint of competitiveness, as a panel of judges (including His Artiness, Baz Luhrmann) will select a single winning GIF tonight. In the meantime, we've embedded the finalists from six different image categories after the break, ranked according to how much we like them and whether any of the artists are mates of ours.
Yahoo Sports for iOS adds Loops for capturing clutch catches, epic fails
Fancy making your own social media commentary during the big game? Yahoo Sports for iOS now lets you capture those monster dunks in animated GIF form. The company has officially labeled the creations Loops, and users can add their own commentary as captions on top of the moving picture. As you might expect, files can then be shared via Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook and e-mail. Not to be left out, the app was revamped for iOS 7 with speedier performance in its sneakers. For a look at some samples, click over to the source link and take a peek.
Google+ profile photos can now be animated GIFs
Rejoice, animated GIF fans! Google+ profile photos can now use the ubiquitous file format. Social networkers can upload their picture of choice, crop it accordingly and revel in spreading internet memes and the ancestors of Vine clips. If you need help finding the perfect avatar, Mountain View has just the search feature you need. Not sure what all this moving image buzz is about? Feel free to take a crash course in web history.
Bring on the cat GIFs! Google adds animated filter to image search
Do you find yourself spending countless hours combing through image searches looking for GIFs of cats wearing sunglasses telling people to "deal with it"? If so, then your lack of productivity is about to become even more galling. Earlier today, Google announced the addition of an animated GIF filter that allows searchers to specifically weed out photos that move. To access this soon to be overused feature, click on Google's Search tools option and select "Animated" as your image type. While we'd hate to pull you away from your epic search for your next internet avatar, you could actually try doing something constructive, like studying the history of the GIF. Or taking a whack at spamming comments with GIFs from Knight Rider, like a certain editor that we know.
PBS traces the history of animated GIFs: deal with it (video)
PBS's Off Book has a new short doc available online called Animated GIFs: The Birth of a Medium which, as you may have guessed, traces the history and evolution of the animated GIF over the course of a very informative six and a half minutes. The makers don't settle the dispute over pronunciation (and, really, who could), but they do mine its origins as relic of internet eras past to a post-modern staple of web 2.0 culture. We could tell you more, but that would just ruin the fun. Head on after the break to watch the episode in full.
NY Public Library turns stereographs into animated GIFs, reminds your 3D TV of its roots
Digging your 3D TVs, video game consoles and laptops? Thank the past -- the New York Public Library is here to remind you that streographic entertainment has been blowing minds for over 100 years, and has the animated gifs to prove it. The Library recently introduced Stereogranimator, a web app that taps into the institution's large collection of historical stereographs and allows user to convert them into wiggling GIF animations and 3D anaglyphs. The program was inspired by "Reaching for the Out of Reach," a manual labor of animated stereographs started by San Francisco artist Joshua Heineman. The library currently has over 40,000 pairs of stenographic images just begging to be converted to depth-suggesting wigglepic. Interested? The link is below, friends -- go ahead and create your own psudeo-3D view of history. Too lazy to make your own? Fine, read on for a shaky and colorful look at an orange tree.
Visualized: 37 years of Roland synths in one awesome animated GIF
You know how much we love our vintage MIDI gear, and apparently our friend Ronny from Das Kraftfuttermischwerk is every bit as big a fan as we are. To that end, he's taken Music Radar's recent guide to all-things Roland and turned it into an awesome (and headache-inducing) animated GIF. Apparently the collection lacks the TR and TB series instruments, otherwise everything the company has produced between 1973 and 2010 should be there. What are you waiting for? Check it out after the break.
