what are .webp files and why has my online experience been plagued by them?
I don't know what a .webp file is but I don't like it. They're like a filthy prank version of the image/gif you're looking for. They make you jump through all these hoops to find the original versions of the files that you can actually do anything with.
Edit: honestly I assumed it had something to do with Google protecting themselves from image piracy shit
Dont blame google, it is Mucrisoft's fault for refusing to support them under default windows. The format itself is in many ways superior to both PNG and JPEG.
Gimp, who's developmental team consists of a bunch of volunteers supports it, the reasons those companies don't support is is either because they don't care about users (Adobe), or because they are pushing their own, proprietary format. (Apple) Microsoft directly competes with Google in the cloud ecosystem space and therefore wants to make using Google as painful as possible. (See microsoft making it a huge pain to switch the default browser to chrome)