Instagram’s New Updates Help You Get Straight to the Good Stuff
Pumpkin and spicy sausage pizza with mascarpone and tomato pesto. (Photo: Instagram/Gilliehouston)
Have you ever turned to Instagram to find pics and posts related to #pizza or #tacos or your #foodporn of choice, only to be overwhelmed by the amount of irrelevant — or just downright ugly — posts you have to sift through? Instagram announced yesterday two major updates that’ll help ease those search woes.
With the new Explore page and reimagined (read: more in-depth) search function, Instagram is setting out to make it “easier to find the people, places, and tags you’re looking for.” But what exactly are the new functions and how will they benefit you? We’ll break it down.
Say it’s Tuesday, so you’re naturally craving tacos. You take to Instagram and type “taco” into the search hoping to maybe find some #TacoTuesday inspiration or a possible restaurant recommendation to satisfy your Mexican craving.
Rather than just showing you users and tags related to tacos, there are now two additional options — the “top” tab, which shows you a collection of popular tags, users, and locations related to your search — and the “places” tab, which shows you popular related destinations. In particular, this tab will be a foodie’s best friend, as one search for “taco” will show you instantly and with ease where other food lovers and photographers are getting their fix.
You can now explore tags on Instagram with the new “top” tab. (Photo: Yahoo Food)
Also, when searching for a given tag on Instagram, the first block of images will now be a curated selection of top posts — the posts that have been getting the most likes and attention — rather than the most immediately tagged images, giving you a higher level of quality in the photos you’re searching for.
So, instead of getting a bevy of blurry, overexposed images of amateur cook’s attempts at making tacos at the top of your feed, instead you get the latest mouthwatering creation from a popular foodgrammer like @Julesfood, or an Insta update from the account of your favorite food publication (*ahem* @yahoofood).
“Homemade Beef Cheek Barbacoa Tacos with simple fixin’s… onion, cilantro, jalapeño and fiery hot chili oil.” (Photo: Instagram/Julesfood)
The other half of the new update is the new Explore page, which will not only expand on Instagram’s existing posts and people discovery functions, but also include two new features: trending tags and specially curated discovery collections.
The trending tabs show you what people are tagging and searching for with the highest frequency at that moment, allowing you a greater insight into what’s trendy right now in the Insta-sphere.
If #TacoTuesday is trending (and why wouldn’t it be?), you can click on that tag and explore more about that topic.
The curated collections, which will be updated regularly, can introduce you to new accounts and places based on trending locations and specific themes — from “extreme athletes” to “towering rocks.”
All-in-all, while these changes might seem a little overwhelming at the moment, in time they’re sure to make it infinitely easier to find beautiful and relevant content related to whatever you’re craving — yes, #tacos included.
What do you think of Instagram’s updates? Let us know in the comments!
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