The brain-trust that is Instagram over at Facebook HQ in California recently released two major updates to their photo-sharing social media app that will help users connect with more photos and photographers. The two new updates include a redesigned Explore page with trending Tags and Places and a more powerful search tool that makes it easier to find people, places and tags relevant to you.
For me, Instagram has always been a bunch of little networks. It’s rare to travel outside your feed and discover new photographers to follow unless you stumble on their Instagram link somewhere on the web or you start clicking on hashtags and going down a Wikipedia-esc rabbit hole of links.
Instagram is hoping to change that with reimagining their Explore page. They have completely redesigned the feature to make discovery on Instagram immediate and effortless by serving up trends as they emerge in real-time, much like Twitter’s trending list. The goal is to showcase when something is happening around the globe with people capturing moments large and small.
In addition, Instagram is adding a new curated collections feature at the top of the Explore page. The topics including “Towering Rocks” and “Extreme Athletes” will be updated regularly and will feature interesting accounts and places. For now, this is a United States only feature.
Search has also seen an overhaul with a dramatic improvement to help you find what you’re looking for. The new Places Search will allow you focus in one just about any location on Earth and show you top and recent posts to help scout out your next adventure. Also, the new Top Search allows you to search across people, places and tags all at once.
It seems with this new update Instagram has devoted a lot of time to expanding features to grow networks and help you find new people to follow. This is a welcomed update for me as I’ve always griped about how locked down Instagram felt at times. With these new features, hopefully more great photographers will get discovered and great photography will be prominently displayed. Now if we could just get an iPad native app that be great. Get on that Taylor.
Instagram for iOS version 7.0 is available today in Apple’s App Store, and Instagram for Android version 7.0 is available today in Google Play.
[Via Instagram]
Only available on US so sucks to be the rest of the world i guess...
Instagram says they are working to bring these features to the rest of the world soon. What might be trending in the US might not be what is trending in China so there needs to be different sets of focus
very cool,