One of the things I notice is that a lot of these aren't generic decorative images, but are unique to a specific website. It'd be nice if this archive identified the point of origin, and linked back to a snapshot (or to neocities.org) so we could see them in their original context.
Also, I can't believe how the early 2000s web was so... different. I felt like GIF abuse was older that 20 years.
E.g. type "dog" and get 11 pages and on the first page (may need to reload to avoid "X" broken links) see the same GIF repeated a few times.
... So many hamsters.
I like it a lot and I wonder if I'm needing to notice something other than the number of glorious hamsters? Thank you for the hamsters, regardless.
1: https://gifcities.org/search?q=mackerel&offset=0&page_size=2...
Note that this is not an answer to your observation.