![]() Gerstenzang didn’t want to elaborate on exactly how GIFV has impacted the company’s bandwidth, but said that it has come with huge cost savings for Imgur. Serving up looping videos instead of animated GIFs helps to speed up viewing on mobile devices, prevents browsers from slowing down, and as a nice side effect also saves Imgur a bunch of money. Gerstenzang told me that Imgur now keeps three copies of each file, be it an animated GIF uploaded by a user or a GIF created by the new converter: A WebM version, which is the company’s preferred video format an MP4 version for browsers that don’t support WebM and an optimized GIF for legacy purposes. The company introduced a new container format called GIFV late last year that essentially replaces the animated image files with looped videos, which are typically just a tenth of the file’s original size. “The GIF format is sort of old,” said Gerstenzang. Imgur has also been preparing for mobile by making GIFs themselves leaner. Dedicated, more feature-rich apps could be coming soon, but Gerstenzang declined to share any further details. Imgur currently does have apps for Android and iOS, but they’re really just app versions of its mobile website. “I think it’s huge,” he said about the mobile opportunity for GIFs, adding that Imgur plans to do a lot more in mobile in the future. Quizzed about this, Gerstenzang started to smile. At their core, they are videos without sound, easily consumable when waiting in the line at Starbucks or during the morning public transportation commute. This is an excellent option if you have been searching Imgur and you just can’t find the perfect existing GIF for what you are trying to say. GIFs are really just a natural extension of this phenomenon. Their Video to GIF tool allows you to add a URL, and it will provide you with a GIF in just a matter of moments. Just think of those clips on Facebook that auto-play, muted, or take a look at the content that folks like AJ+ are creating: Short, shareable clips that combine moving images with big, bold text, easily consumable without the need to actually listen. That’s why some publishers and platforms have started to embrace muted videos. But by giving people a tool to create GIFs more easily, Imgur is also cleverly embracing another online media shift: People are increasingly consuming their news and feeds on mobile devices, on the go - and chances are that they don’t always have their headphones on. Imgur in October learned how to convert GIFs. And it’s true: Animated GIFs have been celebrating a huge comeback over the last few years, fueled largely by Tumblr and Reddit. The new Video to GIF site turns your favorite TV episodes, home movies, or music video into a looping animation. Gerstenzang said that over all of those years, Imgur really just built tools that the community has been asking for, the latest being the new video-to-GIF converter. Initially, most of that activity came from Reddit, where Imgur quickly became the most popular image-hosting resource after launching six years ago. Product and growth director Sam Gerstenzang told me that the site now generates more than 5 billion page views from over 150 million unique users a month. This article originally appeared on no-frills approach has helped to turn Imgur into one of the most popular image-hosting destinations on the web. ![]() ![]() Gerstenzang thinks Imgur can do it better by offering a service with higher-quality GIFs and fewer ads on the platform. ![]() There are multiple sites already in existence where you can create your own GIF, and Giphy hosts thousands that are easily searchable and shareable. That interest also means Imgur will have competition. After selecting the video area, you want to use as your GIF, click on the Create GIF option under the video to proceed. A startup called Blippy built a GIF keyboard for iOS 8 in the fall, and messaging startup Kik acquired a GIF startup in November to build the technology into its app. Twitter started supporting GIFs over the summer, and Pinterest did the same earlier in the year. magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. The company already hosts hundreds of millions of GIFs on the site, and it now wants to make it easier for people to create more. The Adobe Express video to GIF converter is the one tool you need to make. If you’re doing that and spending (wasting?) time looking through the company’s library, Sam Gerstenzang, Imgur’s director of product, believes the company will be able to make money from you down the road (although he’s not saying exactly how). The service will be free, so the company wants to be the place you go to make and store GIFs on the Web. The GIFs are then stored on Imgur’s servers, where others can peruse and share to places like Facebook and Twitter.īasically, Imgur thinks GIFs are a big deal. ![]() Imgur, the photo company that hosts a massive image database for its users, launched a GIF creation tool Thursday that allows people to turn any online video clip into a sharable GIF in about 15 seconds. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |