Instagram has announced that it will be revamping its search function, making it easier to look up for images or videos relevant to the keyword used. This is an improvement over the current version, which instead prioritises on matching search terms to account names and hashtags.
In a video posted on the platform and Twitter, Instagram head Adam Mosseri explained that this update, which he coined as “Interest Search”, will help users to discover even more content on the platform beyond relying on hashtags and profile hits. The same video demonstrated the new search function, which now returns a gallery of images and videos relevant to the keyword in the “Top” tab. Account and hashtag related results, as well as those under Audio and Places are still discoverable and can be browsed via their respective tabs in the feature.
The improved search function is a much appreciated update, albeit arriving after more than a decade since Instagram’s debut. For the longest time, users have been mostly relying on the platform’s Discover feature which randomly lists content based on topics related to their recent Instagram activities. While interesting, most recommendations provided by this feature often appear irrelevant and less personalised than hoped. The alternative is using the existing version of the search function by using hashtags which do provide better results, but only displaying those that are actually tagged with the keyword.
How Search Works 🔎
In this video I cover…
– How we rank search
– How to show up on search
– How we keep search safe
– What’s new for searchIf you’d like to dig in further check out our new blog post: https://t.co/aJmnNEqbKZ pic.twitter.com/n0uc7rG0Nn
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) August 25, 2021
Instagram did not reveal when this updated search feature will be rolled out. It also noted that it will enhance Interest Search further by adding more supported languages and other improvements in order to discover even more relevant content for users.
(Source: Instagram [Official blog] / Adam Mosseri [Twitter])
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