Are Animated Google+ Profile Pictures Acceptable For Authorship?

Apr 2, 2013 - 8:50 am 15 by

Google announced on Google+ twice that you can now use an animated GIF for your profile photo.

What does that mean? Well, here is Google's Matt Steiner with an animated profile photo, as an animated GIF:

Animated Google+ Profile Pictures

Cute? Yes. Geeky? Oh yeah! But I have a concern.

Google has told us that our authorship headshot has to be of some quality. We know that Google uses the Google+ profile photo in many cases as the authorship photo. We also know that most of us would not consider animated GIFs acceptable quality for a writer's headshot.

Would an animated GIF work for authorship in Google's search results snippets? If so, would Google only show one frame or let them be animated in the search results?

If I had to guess? Google will not use animated GIFs as authorship thumbnails in the search results.

I personally will not be testing this.

Forum discussion at Google+.

This story was scheduled to be posted today and was not written today.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: December 17, 2024

Dec 17, 2024 - 10:00 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Site Reputation Abuse: Treating Some Sites Within A Site

Dec 17, 2024 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google: Disavowing Toxic Links Is A Billable Waste Of Time

Dec 17, 2024 - 7:41 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Adds Faceted Navigation To Help Documentation

Dec 17, 2024 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

New Google Merchant Center Promotion For First Order Discount

Dec 17, 2024 - 7:21 am
Other Search Engines

OpenAI Opens ChatGPT Search To All Logged In Users

Dec 17, 2024 - 7:11 am
Previous Story: Most SEOs Feel Google Gives Brands Preferential Treatment