Internet technology pioneer Stephen Wilhite died on March 74 from COVID-related difficulties. He was XNUMX years old and leaves behind an incredible legacy, the GIF, which changed the game for the WWW at its height in the XNUMXs.
Wilhite, who was interested in compression technology, created the GIF at home in XNUMX. "I saw the format in my head, so I started programming," he told the New York Times. He then brought the technology to his job at CompuServe, the first essential provider of Internet services in the US, where he completed the configuration.
In addition to his passion for technology, after retirement Wilhite was an avid outdoorsman and enjoyed building model trains in his basement.
GIFs made the internet
The GIF or Graphics Interchange format has been a massive component of the Internet since its inception. The US editor of TheComparison, Lance Ulanoff, noted in XNUMX that "for webmasters in the XNUMXs, GIFs were as vital to the site-building process as HTML...if HTML was the column backbone of our sites, then the GIFs were skin and blood."
According to his obituary, Wilhite received a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award in New York City in XNUMX for his invention, during which he repeated the proper pronunciation of GIFs through, naturally, a GIF that simply read: " Pronounced 'JIF', not 'GIF'.” The crowd roared in response when Wilhite left the stage without saying a word.
In response to the endless debate over pronunciation, a somewhat annoyed Wilhite told the New York Times: “The Oxford Dictionary admits both pronunciations. You are wrong. This is a soft "G", pronounced "JIF". End of story."
While today you can pair GIFs with short animations you see in memes or send group chats to your friends, the early days of the format were considerably smaller, typically consisting of a few low-resolution images or even single-pixel spacers to assist. . complex HTML layouts.
From humble beginnings to humor
Being the building blocks of the early days of the Internet, it's almost amazing how they're used today for comedic purposes, showing snippets of traditional fan-created shows like Friends or even, in some cases, more seriously compressed entire episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants. .
GIFs like these exploded on Tumblr. and Reddit in its early days despite being considered funny even before the rise of the sites; "No serious web developer or artist would use GIFs," Lance said.
These days, we all look at GIFs fondly; they have stood the test of time and have thrived despite the emergence of new technologies around them. Platforms like Giphy were created by people who love the format, and others like Tenor have followed in their footsteps.
GIFs are a major component of the Internet that will likely never be replaced, so Wilhite rests in peace knowing that the Internet will always celebrate their invention.
While the proper pronunciation might be horrible for some, a commenter on the GIF pronunciation page claims that the pronunciation may be a tribute to peanut butter being "one of programmer's top 3 foods", the other two being Doritos. and Pepsi.