Animated gifs Facebook and Google Plus

What are animated .gifs? An animated gif is a graphic file type that contains many different images on top of one another. The images are compressed and each clip displays for a certain amount of time before the next image appears, this gives the illusion of movement. There is a time and a place for them on websites but in the past they have been considered kind of cheezy and traditionally found on sites of ill-repute or banner ads trying to capture your attention. Over the years this has changed. Their acceptance on the web has pretty much become standard replacing much of the clip-art that was prevalent in the early development of the web. If they have become so accepted why is it that the social networking site, Facebook does not allow them? Initially Facebook claimed they detracted from the user experience. Users have implored Facebook to change their policy for years to no avail. Why change? They set the standard. They were FACEBOOK.

Now there is a new kid on the block. Google-plus is this new kid. s/he is out to make friends and get people to like him. As a result you will immediately notice the vast number of animated gifs on Google+. My prediction is within 6 months Facebook will begin allowing them. Many people including RAWDesigners will welcome this change. GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format. It is an image format which Compuserve patented. So how do you pronounce it. Well naturally you say it with a hard G as in 'graphic', unless you are the creators of it who pronounce it witIf they haveh a soft g as in 'gin'. Both pronunciations are given as correct by the Oxford English Dictionary[2] and the American Heritage Dictionary.[3] Here is an example of an animated GIF that I thought was clever. There are some really sharp classy animated gifs that I have seen lately and I would like to share some with you.