Those short, animated loops that have captivated the Web for decades? They’re pronounced like a brand of peanut butter.
Steve Wilhite created the Graphics Interchange Format, or GIF, while working for Compuserve in 1987. When he received a Webby Award in 2013 for it, and delivered his five-word acceptance speech (that’s all the Webbys allow), he flashed a GIF on the big screens at the Cipriani Wall Street in New York.
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Wilhite has argued for the soft-G pronunciation for years. Yet no less an authority than the White House has posted an image on its Tumblr feed advocating for the hard-G. And the Oxford English Dictionary says both pronunciations are acceptable.
So, here’s wishing Mr. Wilhite “Jood Luck.”
