Pinterest is letting members add playful animated clips called "GIFs" to the hot bulletin board-style social network.
"The well-timed GIF may be the greatest thing to have happened to the Internet since emoticons, and lots of people have said they'd love to see playable GIFs on Pinterest," Ludo Anotov, a software engineer at the California-based company, said in a blog post on Thursday.
"Go ahead and send your friend a bit of midday hilarity or start collecting all your favorite GIFs, so you're armed and ready to unveil them when you're in the mood for a good laugh."
He said there were already tens of millions of "GIF pins" at the social network. Support for GIFs was added to the Pinterest website accessible from desktop computers and would extend soon to mobile devices, according to Anotov.
The acronym GIF stands for "Graphics Interchange Format" and is technology used to turn images into looping, short animated clips.
Pinterest has become one of the Internet's hottest young websites, particularly among women, by giving people virtual bulletin boards that they can decorate with pictures showcasing interests in anything from food to sports, to fashion or travel.
The company became a hit after launching in early 2010 but has not disclosed the number of users. Industry trackers estimate that Pinterest has about 70 million members.
© 2014 AFP
