It’s true. In the early days of the Internet, you were know by your handle, thankfully those days are past. For the better, or perhaps worse, you are identified by your profile pic now – and dare you change it!

Quick, do you recognize these people?

Of course you do.

A profile pic that’s instantly recognizable is so important, that people are wary of changing it, much as they might hate it.

Here’s an interesting example. Dharmesh Shah recently updated his old, pixellated avatar – but chose to keep the exact same pose and expression in the new one, to avoid resetting the instant recognizability. Smart!

Amit