Just in time for the weekend, Pinterest has a little gift, er… GIF to share.
That's right. Like it or not, the social pinboard service now supports animated GIFs.
"The well-timed GIF may be the greatest thing to have happened to the internet since emoticons, and lots of people have said they'd love to see playable GIFs on Pinterest," Pinterest software engineer Ludo Antonov wrote in a blog post Friday. "Starting today, we support GIFs in all their animated glory!"
At this point, people have already pinned "tens of millions" of GIFs, and a million people a day see at least one GIF on Pinterest, he added. To start, GIFs on Pinterest will only play on the Web, but the company plans to soon expand the feature to mobile devices.
"Go ahead and send your friend a bit of midday hilarity or start collecting all your favorite GIFs, so you're armed and ready to unveil them when you're in the mood for a good laugh," Antonov wrote.
Meanwhile, the debate over the pronunciation of GIF has been going on for years, but really picked up steam in May when GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) creator Steve Wilhite weighed in on the animated images' correct pronunciation. His answer: Much like the peanut butter brand (Jif), it's a soft "G." But not everyone agrees. Even the White House decreed that GIF gets a "hard G."
If you have a great idea for an animated GIF, but have never made one before, don't fret. Check out PCMag's overview of How to Make Animated GIFs. Also see PCMag's full review of Pinterest.