Here is a timeline of how to pronounce GIF, one of the great debates of the internet age. June 1987: Steve Wilhite releases the Graphics Interchange Format, or GIF, while working for Compuserve ...

But now—“the GIF itself has become the destination.” Part of the reason the GIF survived even after the GIF purge, Eppink thinks, is because it fit the DIY spirit of the early Internet.