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I am confused, what is the actual advantage of having the countdown be a gif compared to HTML+JavaScript?

For video and remote desktop there might be use for the kinds of gifs, but for a numeral countdown?

The use case for it is things like forums, where you are limited in what you can embed.

I would use such a gif in a blog post as an announcement for something. "Site will be up again at 8pm. (gif)", "Get 25% off in 1 hour (gif)"