YouTube to Make Memes Easier With New Gif-Creator

Google has started testing a gif-maker on YouTube, with the feature allowing users to create six-second animated gif images out of videos. If the feature rolls out across the site and globally, it could certainly kick off a flood of memes across the Internet.

Currently only visible on certain channels, YouTube the gif-making option can be found under the share section, alongside share, embed, and email. On opening the section, users are shown a timeline of the current video, and can either drag to select a section of the video (a maximum of six seconds), or feed in the start time and end time.

(Also see: YouTube Offline Playback Launched in India for Android and iOS Users)

Interestingly, users are also given the option to insert text at the top and bottom (122 characters each, limited to three lines), further enabling the image to be used as meme.

Users can share the gif created by YouTube via a direct link (with a youtube.com domain) to the image, or, with an embed that can be used on other sites or comments sections.

Just how Google is dealing with the possible copyright issues is not known, and the final result may have some limitations - almost certainly not every video on the site will allow for the creation of a gif image.

For now, two channels (and all their videos) have been found (via Engadget) that support the gif-maker feature - the Good Mythical Morning and The Idea Channel, and the only common denominator appears to be a bearded man in almost all the videos.