Big, motionless, glittering or other automatically generated graphics along with Morphing effect in photography began to appear on websites and social networks.
Inthe Pre-YouTube Era while GIF was no longer considered the staple image format by main stream and was shunned as signifiers of amateurishness in web design, the GIF at the dawn of the new century was still unique with it's auto-play and auto-loop features.
This gave rise to another widespread use in the rapidly growing world of Internet culture. In fact, some of the earliest known Internet Memes and viral media took the form of GIF animations like in 2002 Peanut Butter Jelly Time.
Meanwhile, the indiscriminate usage of animated GIFs eventually led to its negative associations with tacky web design because of it over use. Like the over used spinning globe seen on countless website in all kinds of styles.