The GIF is celebrating its 30th birthday. But the moving internet image was ahead of its time, only recently exploding on social media. It was invented in 1987 by a guy named Steve Wilhite and he invented the format to get images to render on the internet. In 1989, they were made to move. In about the early '90, mid-'90s, they started then that's the format that we're stuck with today.