 Stephen Wilhite (Photo: people.com/VNA) |
In 1987, Wilhite was working as a technical team leader at CompuServe, one of the US’s major internet service providers at that time, when he invented the GIF. CompuServe now belongs to Verizon Communications Inc.
In 2012, at the 25th anniversary of GIF, Wilhite won a Webby lifetime achievement award, hailed as the Oscar of the Internet. The first GIF was created showing a moving airplane. GIF, or graphics interchange format, doesn’t have sound nor a video.
GIFs are now used widely on social media to deliver emotions.