Blingee (founded 2006) was an online animated

GIF The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF; or , ) is a Raster graphics, bitmap Image file formats, image format that was developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe led by American computer scientist Steve Wilhite and released ...

creator that allows users to create layered images using original photographs and artwork combined with user-generated ornamentation, referred to as "stamps."

History

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

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pages. The site, however, was different from other web-based GIF editors, allowing users to make their own profiles and other

social network A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

-like functionality. Users could also rate the Blingee compositions of others (referred to as "Blingees") and upload new artwork to use as stamps.

Closure and re-opening announcement

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. However, a massive fan outcry ensued, leading to the site securing the funding to continue operations, which it announced August 19, 2015. The forum post also announced that several previously premium features would now be free for users. In June 2024, Blingee was shut down and replaced with a message that "something new" was coming to replace the original website as well as promotion of Picadelic's other apps.

Use in art and pop culture

Several prominent practitioners of

internet art upright=1.3, "Simple Net Art Diagram", a 1997 work by Michael Sarff and Tim Whidden Internet art (also known as net art or web art) is a form of new media art distributed via the Internet. This form of art circumvents the traditional dominance o ...

use Blingee as part of their practice or as an object of study, including Olia Lialina, Lorna Mills, and Mike Tyka. The album art for M.I.A.'s single "

XXXO "XXXO" is a song by English recording artist M.I.A., released as the lead single from her third studio album, '' Maya'' (2010). The song was written by M.I.A., Charles "Blaqstarr" Smith and Cherry Byron-Withers, and produced by Blaqstarr and ...

" 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.

References

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