Web fact no. 5:

Use of Blinking Text and Animated Gifs is so "90's"

We have come a long way in web design in the last 15 years. My first site used a black background and lime-green text and graphics. Back then it was cool. That was then, this is now.

One of the most "amateur" looking elements in web design is the use of anything that blinks, whether it is text or graphics. Now, I can't always persuade my clients to not use blinking graphics (especially auto dealerships), but blinking text, marquees, rainbow rules and the ubiquitous "Under Construction" animated gifs are completely out of the question. Nothing is more annoying than clicking on a link on a website to learn that the page is deemed "under construction", and a guy with a pick is digging into the computer screen. Nice.

Source: Websites That Work