Sorry, Google’s cool Gboard GIF search isn’t coming to the web

Gboard makes it easy to find GIFs from the keyboard of your iOS device. But Google has no plans for GIF search beyond this.

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Loving the animated GIF search feature that Google unleashed last week within its new Gboard keyboard for iOS? Many are. So how about Google releasing that same type of power for anyone to use via the web? Sadly, the company has nothing pending.

“We don’t have plans right now to do anything more with it,” said Rajan Patel, a principal engineer at Google who oversees Gboard.

Instead, Patel suggested that those who want to use Google to find animated GIFs should instead turn to Google Images, where after conducting a search, you can then narrow the type to “Animated,” as explained more here.

Yeah, that works. But the images aren’t animated when you browse, and you have to undertake a two-step process to search and then narrow, rather than the ease that Gboard GIF search provides.

While Google Images finds GIFs from across the web, Gboard is restricted to partners, Patel said. These include the popular Giphy and Tenor (which powers the browse-by-category option in Gboard). Both are great choices for those who wish Gboard GIF search existed outside Gboard itself.

For more about Gboard and how it finds other types of content, see our Search Engine Land story today: SEO for Gboard? How Google’s new keyboard-search for iOS ranks content.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Danny Sullivan
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Danny Sullivan was a journalist and analyst who covered the digital and search marketing space from 1996 through 2017. He was also a cofounder of Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land, MarTech, and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo and MarTech events. He retired from journalism and Third Door Media in June 2017. You can learn more about him on his personal site & blog He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

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