Social snark gets easier with Tumblr GIF search

If you've spent any time at all on Tumblr you'll know that animated GIFs are even more common than selfies, so its new gif search seems likely to go down a storm. The new search engine now shows up in the add-media option, allowing users of the microblogging service to search for the best reaction GIF, and even includes automatically crediting the animation's original uploader.

Click the "+" next to the compose box and, alongside the option to upload a photo and video, there's now a "GIF" button too. Click that, and a search box pops up.

Of course, whether the ideal animation actually shows up will presumably depend on how well the images are tagged in Tumblr's database. Meanwhile, if you want to be truly Tumblr famous you'll need to keep making your own GIFs; there are only so many times you can use the Kermit-sips-tea animation, after all.

If you upload a GIF and someone else uses it through the new search tool, you'll get a notification that your animation found favor. Your username will get a credit, too.

It's another sign of animated GIFs becoming more commonplace across social networks. Facebook, for instance, added support for them late last month, while standalone GIF search engine Giphy recently launched a Gmail plugin to make adding the graphics to email more straightforward.