Instagram finally brings its search functionality to the Web

Instagram announced today that its bringing the search functionality of its mobile app to desktop.

You can now look up anything from hashtags, locations and usernames right from the desktop.

The update has been released worldwide. The spokesman asserted that, with the addition of search capability to Instagram’s Web experience, the company has “better aligned our Web experience with our mobile app”.

Discovery has never been Instagram’s strong suit, but these changes went a long way toward fixing that.

Also, the report said Instagram has created landing pages for geotags and hashtags.

“While Instagram.com is designed to be complementary to the mobile apps, it’s important to the global conversations that happen on Instagram”, an Instagram spokesperson said. The once mobile-only photo sharing app now allows desktop to do almost everything except actually upload photos and videos.

The new search tools should help encourage the use of Instagram embeds, which allows anyone to paste a picture onto their own site and are often used in news and other outlets to illustrate stories. The search is real-time: as you type in the search term into the conveniently located filed at top-center, a drop down list appears with matching entries listed, each with an icon indicating one of the three result types. Last month, Instagram started rolling out redesigned feeds, profiles, and hashtag pages for its Web interface.