Every State’s Most Searched GIF

• Map
• Popular GIF Breakdown
• Interesting Findings
• Methodology
• Comparison of the last five years

Whether you pronounce “GIF” with a hard or soft G, there’s no denying that the moving images have become a mainstay of internet culture. What better way to virtually share your emotions than to post a GIF of your favorite TV character acting them out for you?

Although GIFs have been popular online since the dawn of social media in the early 2000s, the first GIF was actually invented in 1987. That makes the GIF 35 years old this year!

To celebrate many more years of these iconic moving pictures, the team at GetWindstream wanted to find out each state’s most searched GIF. 

Each State’s Most Googled GIF

Popular GIF Breakdown

Interesting Findings

• “Funny GIF” is the most googled GIF in the highest number of states this year, with 12 states searching it most. 
  • Giphy offers over 82,000 options classified as “funny GIF.” 
• “Yes GIF” occupies the second most googled in the most states spot with 10 states looking up the GIF most. 
  • Giphy has almost 49,000 “yes” GIFs, with the most popular options including famous faces like Jack Nicholson, Jimmy Fallon, Jason Sudeikis as Ted Lasso, and Oprah Winfrey.
  • Last year, “yes GIF”  was only one state’s most searched GIF.  
• Last year’s most searched GIF in the most states was “happy birthday GIF,” with at least 16 searches per state. 
• Connecticut searched “The Office GIF” the most and this might be because the show made references to the state multiple times (you might recognize the episode title, “Dunder Mifflin, this is Connecticut”).
• “Ted Lasso GIF” was the most searched GIF in Illinois and Pennsylvania this year. Go Greyhounds!  
• Among Us, the popular video game that trended in 2020, was the most searched GIF in eight states in 2022.
• The term “Baby Yoda GIF” was the most searched gif in 20 states from 2019-2021, making it the most searched GIF in our study.

Our Methodology

We used Google Trends-related queries to find the most searched GIFs across the United States over a span of five years. Based on those results, we then used the keyword research tool on Semrush to track and analyze the most relevant GIF searches across the country.

The most searched GIFs over the past 1, 2, and 5 years

In addition to finding the cumulative most searched GIF in each state over the past five years, we wanted to find out what was the most searched GIF in each state for 2022 alone. And then we figured—why not compare that to the most Googled GIFs from two and five years ago?

• We found that Massachusettsans love to be on-trend. Five years ago, they searched for “dab GIF” the most. Right after The Mandalorian season one was released, they looked up “Baby Yoda GIF,” and then this past year? “dumpster fire” was the most searched GIF.
• Montana, South Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming, and Maine are all about consistency: the most googled GIF from each of these states in every year we analyzed was “happy birthday.”
• Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Michigan might need some self care. The most searched GIF from each of these states in the past year was “dumpster fire.”