Quick Summary

• Yapp explains what Giphy is and why it matters as part of its tech explainer series.
• The post makes a trending digital product easier to understand in a quick, accessible format.
• Readers interested in consumer tech and internet culture will benefit most from this overview.

Giphy, n;

A hugely popular search engine for animated images known as GIFs. The service integrates with popular communication services, making it dangerously easy to find and share GIFs (whether you need to or not.)

The Giphy database is full of the most popular GIFs, created or uploaded by users. GIFs are tagged and sometimes categorized, creating a searchable network of goofy moving images. Most recently, Giphy joined forces with Chrome, making it dangerously easy to insert a GIF into an email (via Gmail) to your friends, mom, or boss. Facebook Messenger, Slack, Groupme and WordPress all also use Giphy’s rabbit-hole GIF library to easily source fitting GIFs for your texts and posts. Giphy also has it’s own app for your endless searching pleasure.

If a picture is worth 1000 words, a GIF is worth even more (and a cat GIF is priceless). What are you favorite GIFs to send?