What is a Gravatar?

May 20

How-To Guides David 1 Comment
, , , , , , , , , ,

Gravatar? That’s a strange word! I hear you say, and yes, you’re right it is. It’s a pretty funky word too, sounds a bit like gravity, but then I’m a physicist, so I would say that. Although, it has nothing to do with gravity at all.

Before I start explaining what on earth a Gravatar is, let me explain the problem that a Gravatar would solve for you.

Quite simply, you use a lot of websites (social networks, forums, commenting on blogs, etc.), and on each you most likely an avatar, a little picture representing you. It’s rather time consuming, and boring, setting up an avatar on each and every site that you use, isn’t it? Be honest, isn’t it boring trying to find that same little picture on your computer every time you join a new site?

Now, wouldn’t it be rather grand if each website you joined, knew what your avatar was just by your e-mail address? Think about it, no more having to keep and find that little picture on your computer, and upload it as part of joining every new website. Not only that, but it would also just come up whenever you left a comment on someone’s blog.

Well, there is a way, and they are called, yep you guessed it, GRAVATAR’S! Which is short for (and I do hope this makes sense to you now), Globally Recognised Avatars. Simply register at http://en.gravatar.com/ and you can upload an image which will be associated with your e-mail address. You can even upload multiple images so you can simply log in and change the image to be your current Gravatar.

By using a Gravatar you have a consistent avatar on any site you join which supports the Gravatar system. This is where the got’cha comes in. A lot of big, mainstream, sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc., don’t use this system. Most blogging platforms support it, so that you’ll get your avatar appearing whenever you leave a comment on someone’s blogs, and I think it’s an optional extra people can install on their forums (someone please validate this for me).

However, what’s important is that this is a really great idea, and the more people who use it, means the more likely it is that it will be supported by larger sites. Personally, I think Gravatar integration on Twitter would be a fantastic idea.

So there you are, join http://en.gravatar.com/, upload your favourite avatar, and start splashing it around the web, you know you want to ;-)

Related Links:

Update

WordPress.tv has just produced a video explaining what Gravatars are, so I thought I may as well add it to here too!

Share this post