Thanks to one Redditor's weekend project, the internet now has a destination to track GIFs as they go viral on Twitter.
Aptly named GIFHELL, the site shows both the most tweeted GIFs on Twitter at a given time as well as the most popular, based on number of tweets since the GIF's first detection. The result is a mesmerizing (and at times nauseating) peek at what's popular in that specific moment as well as the quick-burn lifecycle of most pop culture GIFs.
http://t.co/9FT6yM4f8B is operational and it turns out people mostly want to look at @justinbieber and #porn
.gif hell
@gifhell
http://t.co/9FT6yM4f8B is operational and it turns out people mostly want to look at @justinbieber and #porn
/ Via
Though Tumblr tends to be the social network most commonly associated with the GIF resurgence of the past few years, it's harder to get any real-time sense of what's "trending" without searching through curated GIF tags or following a slew of popular and frequently updated blogs.
Like Imgur's real-time upload page or the fascinating Vinepeek, these unfiltered streams are a chance to try and pick a quick signal out of the overwhelming noise of the social cascade. In this case, it would seem that the virality of a GIF on Twitter has little to do with size or quality, and everything to do with timing — nearly all the GIFs are snippets taken from last night's VMAs, heartthrobs, and porn.
gifhell.com