Introducing GIF search on Twitter • Hacker News Board

Re: Introducing GIF search on Twitter

#71

Post by cbhl » Wed, Feb 17, 2016, 10:19 PM UTC

xienze wrote: post #46

Tenhundfeld wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess your critique is that Giphy doesn't have a clear, announced monetization strategy? That sounds fair. I haven't done any research on the company, but that seemed vague in their recent funding announcement/valuation. However, I think it's fair to say that Giphy has created something people want to use. Anecdotally, their Slack integration is very popular in the channels I frequent. Maybe the lack of public mone…

What makes this indicative of a bubble is the combination of: a. Business centered around an utterly frivolous endeavor b. Seemingly far more employees than necessary to support (a) c. Many millions of dollars raised in the pursuit of (a) and (b) You're absolutely correct that people want to use it. But they sure as hell aren't gonna pay directly for it or put up with ads. This is not a business made to last. I know…

What about sponsored GIFs from your favorite top brands? Something like Purina Beggin, or Tide, or American Airlines.

Re: Introducing GIF search on Twitter

#72

Post by Keats » Wed, Feb 17, 2016, 10:24 PM UTC

VeilEm wrote: post #22

xienze wrote: post #18

> “GIPHY delivers real-time GIFs as they happen, helping to power Twitter’s live commentary and conversation,” says Alex Chung, founder and CEO of GIPHY. Someone built a 30+ person company around animated GIFs. And they say there isn't a bubble...

It's analogous to building a 30+ person company around MS Office clip art circa 1995 or Print Shop banner designs circa 1985, only now the company is valued at $300m with $50m funding. For gif search. Because I need those memes and I need them fast?

If only the gif search worked. 75% of the time when I do a giphy search on slack i get completely unrelated gifs.

Re: Introducing GIF search on Twitter

#73

Post by Dylan16807 » Wed, Feb 17, 2016, 10:29 PM UTC

Is there any way to download the actual GIF yet? Last I looked it was impossible, which sucks for small-palette aliased animations.

Re: Introducing GIF search on Twitter

#74

Post by Dylan16807 » Wed, Feb 17, 2016, 10:39 PM UTC

sarciszewski wrote: post #45

shawabawa3 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't gifs come under fair usage mostly? Can't claim a 5 second clip of a show/movie is copyright infringement

IANAL but it would probably depend on the GIF itself. Using a particular file format doesn't waive your rights as far as I know.

Well that's obvious and also doesn't answer the question about the "mostly" case.

Fun to note is the gifs of entire movies in kilopixel resolution.

Re: Introducing GIF search on Twitter

#75

Post by nl » Wed, Feb 17, 2016, 10:44 PM UTC

xienze wrote: post #18

> “GIPHY delivers real-time GIFs as they happen, helping to power Twitter’s live commentary and conversation,” says Alex Chung, founder and CEO of GIPHY. Someone built a 30+ person company around animated GIFs. And they say there isn't a bubble...

Don't view it as a software company. View it as a media company.

Plenty of 30+ person magazines or topic you've never heard of (Or there used to be - now they are 5 person websites).

Re: Introducing GIF search on Twitter

#76

Post by theTaggedTags » Wed, Feb 17, 2016, 10:49 PM UTC

Keats wrote: post #72

VeilEm wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's analogous to building a 30+ person company around MS Office clip art circa 1995 or Print Shop banner designs circa 1985, only now the company is valued at $300m with $50m funding. For gif search. Because I need those memes and I need them fast?

If only the gif search worked. 75% of the time when I do a giphy search on slack i get completely unrelated gifs.

It's all about the tags. You have to work in the other direction. Find something well-tagged, then giphy the fully qualified tag that produces the same gif every time.

Granted, this is not a "search engine" type of use case, but the actual existence of some gifs, and the tags applied, force a degree of compromise.

Re: Introducing GIF search on Twitter

#77

Post by rhino369 » Wed, Feb 17, 2016, 11:38 PM UTC

georgehotelling wrote: post #49

mintplant wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're rehosting loads of copyrighted content, too.

That was pretty much how YouTube started. Content ID wasn't part of their MVP.

One key difference I see is that GIPHY is clearly either uploading or categorizing/tagging/grouping pretty obviously copyrighted stuff and is doing so under their own name "team giphy." That's a huge risk because it probably breaches the copyright safe-harbor under DMCA.

If they cut that out, they are probably fine.

Re: Introducing GIF search on Twitter

#78

Post by ryanSrich » Wed, Feb 17, 2016, 11:39 PM UTC

xienze wrote: post #18

> “GIPHY delivers real-time GIFs as they happen, helping to power Twitter’s live commentary and conversation,” says Alex Chung, founder and CEO of GIPHY. Someone built a 30+ person company around animated GIFs. And they say there isn't a bubble...

GIPHY is the ultimate tech bubble company.

Re: Introducing GIF search on Twitter

#79

Post by ryanSrich » Wed, Feb 17, 2016, 11:47 PM UTC

minimaxir wrote: post #11

atroyn wrote: post #8

I don't understand why they'd choose this particular feature? Which group of users is this for?

Millennials. That is not a snarky response.

I really wonder how they do financial projections for features like this. How do you even model that? Is it based on retention rates for adding the feature? Certainly users aren't saying "Well twitter has a GIF search now so I can finally join". It just all seems made up. A massive house of cards.

Re: Introducing GIF search on Twitter

#80

Post by rhino369 » Wed, Feb 17, 2016, 11:52 PM UTC

shawabawa3 wrote: post #34

souraboutlife wrote: post #25

How is what GIPHY is doing not just plain copyright infringement? I get the "search Engine" spiel, though questionable, on their site. But there is no attribution on Twitter/Slack etc.

Don't gifs come under fair usage mostly? Can't claim a 5 second clip of a show/movie is copyright infringement

Fair use is hard to determine before you get sued. There is no black or white rule. There are 4 (or more) factors to consider. Some are in favor of it being fair use--a)Amount and substantiality* and b) effect upon work's value. Some go against fair use, like commercial nature of the work. The fact that Giphy is just ripping off other people to get funding is bad for their fair use argument.

How a court would rule isn't clear.

*assuming they are copying a clip from a movie or show. Ripping off someone's original gif would turn this factor against them since they copy the whole thing.