Imgur is a social networking platform where users share images online.
Founded in 2009, Alan Schaad first developed Imgur as a side project while he attended Ohio University. He initially designed it as a kind of gift for Reddit users and it immediately went viral, jumping from a thousand hits per day to a million in the first five months alone.
Due to use on other social media networks like Facebook and Digg, Imgur has since grown in popularity even further. By 2014, two thirds of all popular Reddit posts were links to images on Imgur. In 2015, the social platformn received another boost, raising $40 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz.
Did you fall for ‘Catification’ on April Fools’ Day?
Imgur has a number of features for its users, including customisable and embeddable albums and a meme generator. In 2010, Imgur accounts launched, a feature which allows users to create custom image galleries and manage images. Images can be edited, deleted, added to albums and submitted to the public gallery.
The public gallery is where all the best, most viral images are kept. Imgur uses an algorithm the takes into account views, shares and votes based on time. Images added to the public gallery can be voted and commented on, earning reputation points and trophies.
Imgur has a reputation for jokes on April Fool’s Day. The first joke in April 2011 was the ‘Catification’ feature, which let users add cats to any image with one click. In 2016, ‘Imgur for Pets’ was added for April Fools’ Day, which saw the icons used to vote for pictures changed to paw prints and a bone.
