 | |
Type of site | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Products | GIF Platform |
| Services | Creating, sharing, and browsing animated GIFs |
| Parent | Piccadilly |
| Registration | Optional |
| Current status | Defunct |
| Native client(s) on | Web browser |
Blingee (founded 2006) was an online animated GIF creator that allows users to create layered images using original photographs and artwork combined with user-generated ornamentation, referred to as "stamps."
Blingee was founded as part of a website network Bauer Teen Network, and marketed towards young people who wished to add personalized imagery to their Myspace pages. The site, however, was different from other web-based GIF editors, allowing users to make their own profiles and other social network-like functionality. Users could also rate the Blingee compositions of others (referred to as "Blingees") and upload new artwork to use as stamps.
On August 14, 2015, Blingee announced that due to infrastructural and business model-related issues, the site would be closing down. The management offered users a way to download their work from the site, while many publications offered eulogies. [1] [2] However, a massive fan outcry ensued, leading to the site securing the funding to continue operations, which it announced August 19, 2015. [3] The forum post also announced that several previously premium features would now be free for users. [4]
On June 2024, Blingee was shutdown in favor of two projects called Picadelic and MoShow[ citation needed ].
Several prominent practitioners of internet art use Blingee as part of their practice or as an object of study, including Olia Lialina, [5] Lorna Mills, [6] and Mike Tyka. [7]
The album art for M.I.A.'s single "XXXO" is meant to be a visual reference to Blingee, and the music video for the song features several headshots of the rapper pictured among glittering floral graphics like those common on the site.
CompuServe was an American online service, the first major commercial one in the world. It opened in 1969 as a timesharing and remote access service marketed to corporations. After a successful 1979 venture selling otherwise under-utilized after-hours time to Radio Shack customers, the system was opened to the public, roughly the same time as The Source.
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporarily archived. Also, depending on the access level of a user or the forum set-up, a posted message might need to be approved by a moderator before it becomes publicly visible.
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The Renren Network, formerly known as the Xiaonei Network, is a Chinese social networking service similar to Facebook. It was popular among college students. Renren Inc. has its headquarters in Chaoyang District, Beijing, with additional offices in Shanghai and Guangzhou. Renren had a $740m initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2011.
Google Friend Connect was a free social networking site, active from 2008 to 2012. Similar to Facebook Platform and MySpaceID, it allowed users to build a profile to share and update information through messaging, photographs and video content via third-party sites which acted as a host for profile sharing and social exchanges.
DeviantArt, historically stylized as deviantART, is an American online art community that features artwork, videography, and photography, launched on August 7, 2000, by Angelo Sotira, Scott Jarkoff, and Matthew Stephens among others.
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