Instagram has recently launched an upgrade that is sure to be a game changer. The picture and video sharing application and social network has been known mostly as a mobile-first app, but with their recent update, it will be known for much more than that.

With over 300 million active users and 70 million photos uploaded every day, Instagram has moved from being a trendy app to being a revolutionizing experience. The all new search and explore web capabilities is sure to revolutionize your experience even more.

Let's Talk Updates

The new web search feature will allow users to search for hashtags, profiles, and locations on Instagram.com. You also have the ability to do what you normally would on the mobile app — follow users, favorite pictures, make comments, and edit your profile.

The same experience that you already have on the app will now be available for the web.

Instagram has also created landing pages for geotags and hashtags, which allows you to be able to see top posts when you search by a geotag or a hashtag.

In addition, your profile has also gone through a few changes. Instead of the previous five pictures shown in the grid, three pictures are now shown in each row which allows for a larger display of your most recent videos or pictures.

Additionally, the cover image is gone and a lot of the borders and rounded images are also gone, which shows Instagram's commitment to overhauling the web.

Now that Instagram has updated their website, which they said allows for greater continuity, here are five new ways you to need to know about when search on Instagram — both for the web and with the app.

Looking at it from an overall perspective, the web search is intended to be just as similar as the app experience. You can use the web at instagram.com just as you normally would use the app, which has already been mentioned.

For example, if you want to find your favorite profile or go to your own profile, type instagram.com/[username], putting your profile name or that of your favorite profile in the brackets. Or if you search for your favorite profile, you will then be directed to their page in which you have the option to like their pictures and videos, follow them, or make a comment on their content — simple and effective.

With the recent hashtag emoji search option, Instagram is giving users the ability to find content, people, and comments that use popular emojis, which should lead to more interactions and proves that you should be using the popular icons.

You may want to discover what emojis mean and how to better use them on your own pictures and videos.

On the website, simply use the hashtag symbol and your favorite emoji icon, which can be found here. Copy and paste both the icon and hashtag onto the search bar and search away.

You'll find that the posts are numbered by popularity count, and that hashtag emojis can also be combined to include which makes for an even more unique search. So, what are your favorite emojis that you'll use in search?

Just like emoji search, you'll be able to search for your favorite people with the search bar. For example, if you search for the most followed accounts you'll notice that Beyoncé, for example, will have a blue symbol next to her name, which indicates authenticity of the account.

Beware of those fake Beyoncé accounts, or any fake accounts.

Geosearch is also a cool option, which allows users to search for posts and people based on location. Every time you upload a picture or video with Instagram and allow the location to be tagged, you're essentially allowing other people to search for content in that same tagged location.

For example, when loading your favorite picture from Nice, France and tagging the location will allow for that picture or video to be included in the geotag and your photo map.

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Similar to the hashtag emoji search, you can also search for hashtag items including #thebest, #tech, #makeuseof, and other recommended hashtags. After searching, you'll notice top posts and most recent posts, which makes finding what you want easier.

You can even submit to Instagram's weekly hashtag project.

Ironically, searching with just the hashtag will bring up no results (that is, without the #).

What Do You Think?

Are you happy with Instagram web search? Do you plan to use the site more now that it is similar to the app?