The venerable image format – the GIF turns 30 years old this week and Facebook is marking the milestone by adding additional GIF support to its service. While users have been able to post GIFs in statuses for over two years, from today, users can add GIFs to comments with the help of a GIF search built-in.
Facebook is also sharing statistics on GIF usage on the service, which has revealed that 13 billion GIFs were shared on Facebook Messenger last year alone. Usage peaked on January 1st of this year, when more than 400 million GIFs were exchanged – likely celebrating the New Year.
Of course, no GIF celebration goes without a debate on the pronunciation of the word. US Facebook users have been given a poll, asking if they pronounce GIF with a soft or hard G – jiff or giff. We will always pronounce it with a hard G, despite what the format’s creator says.
Here’s to another 30 years of GIFs! Happy birthday!
