Instagram Web Profiles
The popular app Instagram, built on the simple act of taking pictures, is allowing its users to have Web-based profiles starting next week. Before, photos on Instagram were only accessible via mobile devices. Now, users can view their pictures on their Web profile along with their profile photo, bio, and a selection of their recently shared photographs. Although users won’t be able to upload photos to their accounts from the Web, they can still follow others, comment on, and like photos much like photo-viewing on Facebook. Tech columnist MG Siegler wrote that the “quick, dynamic overview of your life in pictures is maybe even more compelling than the overall Facebook Timeline because it’s so simple”, so will we perhaps be seeing a shift of users from Facebook to the new web profiles of Instagram?
It is not likely that Facebook will lose its following of one billion active users, but Instagram may see an increase of users with its new web profile addition. We can assume that Instagram is making the experience much easier for its users by allowing them to view photos and connect with other users from a computer. I don’t know about you, but I get things done much more quickly on a computer than from the small screen and keyboard of a smartphone. With this increased efficiency, Instagram users have a direct benefit from putting their profiles to full use to connect with other users if they assume that the majority of other users will also take advantage of the new profiles. If the majority of these Instagram users decide that they like the new web profiles and spread the word to non-Instagram users, an information cascade would start. Instagram could see an influx of new users as they copy the behaviors of others and sign up for their own accounts.
-chubbybunny
http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/05/tech/web/instagram-web-profiles/index.html?hpt=hp_t3