Instagram Rolls Out New Search Feature As It Continues To Add New Features To Its Web Presence

When Instagram first debuted, it was primarily a smartphone app. It offered a bare bones website that allowed users to browse photos and see who liked them. Users were later allowed to create online profiles.

Last month Instagram added the ‘Explore’ feature to the website, which allows users to find real time events. Instagram’s latest feature to be added allows users to search the Instagram site through a web browser, and it has the same search functionality as the phone app.

As reported in Web Pro News, Instagram added the new search feature to its Internet website that allows users to search people, places, and hashtags on the web. Instagram had previously added the search function to its phone app.

The new move to offer search on the Instagram website comes at a time when Instagram is planning to ramp up its advertising offerings. For small business owners, this opens a new advertising venue for those who want to connect with the demographic of Instagram users.

A spokesman for Instagram, according to Stuff, said the website was meant to complement the phone app.

“While Instagram.com is designed to be complementary to the mobile apps, it’s important to the global conversations that happen on Instagram. Instagram.com allows you to view Instagram content from anywhere, and brings the web at large into the Instagram community.”

Currently, Instagram boasts 300 million users, and it was purchased by Facebook in 2012 for $1 billion. Instagram user and digital influencer Lauren Bath, who has a following of 410,000, said the timing was good for this move.

“The entire team at Facebook, who now own Instagram, always have a plan and are looking at the big picture. After all their hard work introducing Instagram advertising and improving existing functions on the app I guess it’s now time to take things further. It seems like good timing to me as Instagram is still in a period of growth.”

The changes to Instagram also come at a time when Facebook is challenging YouTube in the video market by offering revenue sharing to certain video creators. Facebook also began challenging Amazon by testing online stores as part of Facebook fan pages and allowing fan page creators to place a buy button on their pages. Stores were previously a part of the Facebook offering, but merchants complained they were difficult to find.

What do you think about Instagram adding search functionality to its website? Will this help content marketers find viral content? Is this a good venue for small business owners to advertise, and will it help them increase profits?