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I don't think the current popularity of GIF compared to HTML5 <video> is really because of autoplay (since <video> can do that too, and loop too). The big adva

by seszett 13y ago

I don't think the current popularity of GIF compared to HTML5 <video> is really because of autoplay (since <video> can do that too, and loop too). The big advantage of GIF is that it works in an <img> tag just like any other image, so you don't need a website to explicitly support it. Another advantage, I think, is that GIFs are guaranteed not to play sound, which is great when browsing say imgur.com or pr0gramm.com at work (edit: of well, I had missed the "muting me" part of your comment, so let's just say that we agree that it's an important component).

shmerl 13y ago
Video can be muted with the tag itself. The only advantage of GIF is like you said - you can use it in any place where images are supported (forums and etc.) and video is not. On the sites where you have control over the tags GIFs are counterproductive. For example they are way bigger for the same length of video.
- seszett 13y ago
  From a user point of view, you can be sure that a site with pictures, including GIFs, won't play sound, that's what I meant. On the other hand, users don't have to know whether the HTML they are served have <video>s or <img>s, so this could all be done behind the scenes, I guess.
  - IE5point5 13y ago
    True but users would prefer GIFs if they want to save/repost elsewhere. Serving them video would break this.
lstamour 13y ago
Video doesn't autoplay on iOS devices, while GIFs will playback for a few iterations automatically, last I checked.
e7mac 13y ago
Yeah, and very much so in email. <video> gets stripped in most web email clients. However, you can embed gifs and they work great. I made a fun service: flukyGifs - gifs that change every time you visit it (based on keywords). Add a fun one to your email signature, and there's something to look forward to every time someone opens your email! Here's a link http://flukygif.herokuapp.com http://flukygif.herokuapp.com

by seszett 13y ago

shmerl 13y ago

Video can be muted with the tag itself. The only advantage of GIF is like you said - you can use it in any place where images are supported (forums and etc.) and video is not. On the sites where you have control over the tags GIFs are counterproductive. For example they are way bigger for the same length of video.

seszett 13y ago
From a user point of view, you can be sure that a site with pictures, including GIFs, won't play sound, that's what I meant. On the other hand, users don't have to know whether the HTML they are served have <video>s or <img>s, so this could all be done behind the scenes, I guess.
- IE5point5 13y ago
  True but users would prefer GIFs if they want to save/repost elsewhere. Serving them video would break this.

lstamour 13y ago

Video doesn't autoplay on iOS devices, while GIFs will playback for a few iterations automatically, last I checked.

e7mac 13y ago

Yeah, and very much so in email. <video> gets stripped in most web email clients. However, you can embed gifs and they work great. I made a fun service: flukyGifs - gifs that change every time you visit it (based on keywords). Add a fun one to your email signature, and there's something to look forward to every time someone opens your email! Here's a link http://flukygif.herokuapp.com http://flukygif.herokuapp.com