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: May 9, 2025

May 9, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Volatility, D.C. Creator Summit, Apple Safari Google Searches Drop & Google Ads AI Max

May 9, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google Ads

Google Ads With Number Of Followers

May 9, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google

Google Search Country & Language Parameters

May 9, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Search Stops 20X More Scammy Pages With Better AI

May 9, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google AdSense

Google AdSense Auto Optimize Adds Site Level Controls

May 9, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Most SEOs Feel Google Gives Brands Preferential Treatment