Tumblr has added new search capabilities for GIFs.
As users get ready to publish their content, they can click the + and GIF buttons to choose an animated image indexed on Tumblr that fits in with what they’re trying to convey. Engagement is a huge factor when it comes to which GIFs rank highest.
Searchable GIFs are an attempt to appeal to Tumblr’s young, emoji-dependent audience, who prefer a picture to a thousand words.
“Since GIFs have replaced written language, we’re making it easier to turn your obsolete verbiage into modern moving pictures,” Tumblr said in a recent blog post.
The focus on GIFs demonstrates the new, modern direction Tumblr’s parent company, Yahoo, has been taking over the last year. While the search powerhouse continues to add to its selection of digital magazines, a number of long-standing features, such as Maps and Pipes, will be shut down in the coming weeks.
This isn’t Tumblr’s first move in making GIFs searchable. In April, the blogging platform created The Perfect GIF for Hulu, a search engine with 1,400 TV-themed GIFS that can be shared via email, as well as across Tumblr, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Tumblr isn’t the only platform paying attention to GIFs. Less than two weeks ago, Facebook started allowing them, while Giphy also released a new Chrome extension that allows users to easily insert GIFs into emails.
The search feature is currently only available on desktop.