Internet Archive Launches GifCities with 4.5 Million Animated GIFs

The Internet Archive has launched GifCities, a searchable repository of over 4.5 million animated GIFs salvaged from the defunct Geocities platform. Geocities, founded in 1994 and acquired by Yahoo! in 1999, was closed in 2009 after hosting over 38 million pages. The project preserves what artist Olia Lialina, a net art pioneer who calls herself a "Geocities archaeologist," and Dragan Espenschied have termed "digital folklore." Users can search by theme or name to retrieve a vast array of GIFs, from early web artifacts to widely shared animations. The initiative underscores the growing recognition of animated GIFs as a significant cultural and artistic phenomenon, a trend also explored by curator Valentina Tanni.