How to search posts on instagram

Breaking Down How Instagram Search Works

Search on Instagram sorts through millions of accounts and posts to help you browse your interests. From nail art to interior design to dinner recipes, Search is a place for discovery and inspiration.

In Shedding More Light on How Instagram Works, we shared how we personalize your experience across Feed, Stories, Reels and Explore. Today, we’re breaking down what you see when you search and why.

How we rank Search results

Search is built to help you find accounts and topics of interest. It's different from Feed, Stories, Reels and Explore because your input helps us figure out what to show you. Your search tells us what you’re looking for, and it’s noticeable when the results aren’t useful. It’s important for us to get this right, so we try to organize search results by what’s most relevant to you — whether it be a close friend, a creator you love, or ideas for vegan desserts.

Let’s say you’re interested in finding pictures of space after seeing the blue moon. When you tap the search bar on the Explore page, the first thing you see is your recent searches. As you begin typing “space,” we show you accounts, audio, hashtags, and places that match the text of your search. In this case, results like @space and #space show up because “space” appears in their name.

In addition to the text you type into search, we use information from accounts, hashtags and places — called signals — to rank your search results. The most important signals we use, in order of importance, are:

Your text in Search. The text you enter in the search bar is by far the most important signal for Search. We try to match what you type with relevant usernames, bios, captions, hashtags and places.
Your activity. This includes accounts you follow, posts you've viewed, and how you've interacted with accounts in the past. We usually show accounts and hashtags you follow or visit higher than those you don’t.
Information about the search results. When there are a lot of potential results, we also look at popularity signals. These include the number of clicks, likes, shares and follows for a particular account, hashtag or place.

How we help you show up in Search

We understand that it’s important you show up in search results when friends or fans are looking for you. We want to make sure that it’s easy for others to find your photos and videos, so here are a few best practices that you can use to help show up in search results:

Use a fitting handle and profile name. Search results are matched by text. Using an Instagram handle or profile name that’s related to the content of your posts is your best bet for showing up in relevant searches. If your friends or fans know you by a certain name, include that name in your username or profile so that you can show up when they search for you.
Include relevant keywords and locations in your bio. Same principle here. Make sure your bio includes keywords about who you are and what your profile is about. If your account is location-specific, like for a small business, sharing your location in your bio can make it easier for people in your area to find you.
Use relevant keywords and hashtags in captions. For a post to be found in Search, put keywords and hashtags in the caption, not the comments.

How we help keep Search safe

We avoid showing you accounts, posts and hashtags that go against our Recommendations Guidelines in search results. We do this in a few ways. Accounts that post spam or violate our guidelines may appear lower in search results, and you may have to search their full username to find them. We also balance searches for sensitive topics with additional safety measures to make sure we don’t show you related content that could be harmful. Accounts, hashtags and posts that violate our Community Guidelines are removed from Instagram entirely, which prevents them from showing up in Search.

We will continue to make search safer with features like information pop-ups for sensitive searches. These pages provide links to verified resources for additional support.

How we plan to make Search even better

Search was originally created to help you navigate Instagram. We are soon launching a series of improvements designed for inspiration and discovery. These changes make Instagram Search more than just a way to find accounts and hashtags. We’re moving towards a full search results page experience that makes it even easier to go deep on your interests.

The keywords you can use to search for content is expanding. We’re currently focused on getting keyword search results right in English, and will add support for other languages in the future.

We’re also making search results better for exploration. For example, your search for “space” will show you space-related photos and videos, too. This is especially helpful when you don’t have an exact username or hashtag in mind when searching for a certain topic.

We design all of our features to help you find the things you love. We are constantly working on improvements to help you discover entertaining things to share with your friends, and we look forward to showing you more about how Instagram works in upcoming posts.

How to Search Instagram Accounts, Hashtags and Posts

Instagram is not just about posting your own photos and looking at your friends’ cool updates. It is also about discovering new people who just like you, love sharing their photos and videos with those who matter!

Thanks to the Instagram search, you can easily search Instagram accounts from all around the world and follow people (like Instagram influencers) whose content you find interesting and inspiring. You can also use Instagram search to discover trending topics, as well as hashtags.

In this article, we’ll show you how to use Instagram search like a pro to discover Instagram users, hashtags and trending posts, and grow your Instagram page.

Searching IG Accounts, Tags and Places

If you have yet to use Instagram, make sure you download it from Play Store if you are on Android, or the App Store if you are on iOS. Then register your Instagram account to start using the app.

When you open the Instagram app, Instagram will take you straight to your profile, where you can see your details, photo gallery, Instagram story and so on. At the bottom of your screen, there are five different icons, with one that looks like a magnifying glass.

The magnifying glass icon is used for Instagram search, where you can search Instagram users, hashtags and popular posts. Click on it and you will see Instagram search bar at the top of your screen.

On that page, you will see trending posts related to music, travel, food, tv and movies, style, comics, animals, art, beauty, nature and decor. Instagram will also show you photos and videos that may interest you based on people you follow, posts you saved and photos you liked.

You can scroll down and open the photos and videos that catch your attention. Or you can browse for more Instagram accounts using the Instagram search bar. Click on it and you will see four different clickable options right below the search bar at the top of your screen: top, people, tags and places. Instagram will also recommend Instagram accounts that are relevant to you.

You can type whatever you want in the Instagram search bar. Perhaps you want to search Instagram accounts that feature stunning travel photos to inspire you for your next vacation. If so, type your keyword. For example, Bangkok.

If you click on Top and type Bangkok, you will see Instagram users, Bangkok geolocations and popular Bangkok hashtags.

But if you click on People, you will only see Instagram users with the word Bangkok in their usernames.

Well, if you click on Tags, then you will hashtags related to Bangkok.

And if you click on Places, you will see geolocations of the many places in Bangkok.

Now that you have explored Instagram search, it’s time that you explore some of the ways on how you can use it to grow your page based on the Instagram accounts, hashtags and posts you find.

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Search Instagram Contents Like a Pro

In case you have not used Instagram search to its full potential, we are going to show you how you can take advantage of this Instagram feature to increase your Instagram followings and improve your account visibility on the popular photo-sharing app.

1. Use the Best Hashtags

The best hashtags are the ones that are the most relevant to what you are posting. If you are posting about your trip to Seoul, South Korea, then your hashtags should have words like Seoul, South Korea or Asia, and perhaps K-Pop since that is what the country is very famous for. Use whatever you think will help people with similar interests find you.

You can search Instagram for hashtags by:

Going to the Instagram search bar and type your keyword.
Clicking on a hashtag in a comment section or image caption.

The best thing about the first option is that it gives you the opportunity to discover other other hashtags relevant to your searches.

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2. Search by Location

Another great way to discover Instagram accounts, hashtags and trending posts is by using Instagram locations.

You do not need to turn on your GPS in order to see other people’s location. Just click on the location shown at the top of the photo and you will be directed to the location of the photo.

Instagram will show you both top and recent images posted by other Instagrammers who had been to the location. There is a small map just above the tagged photos that you can click. You can click on the red icon and open the map using Google Maps.

Alternatively, you can go to the Instagram search bar to search for the same location to see who else has been to the same place. Instagram will require you to turn on your GPS in order to help you find the location you want to find.

If you have an Instagram page for your business, you must not miss out on this feature. Use it to help people locate your local store (if any) or company.

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Let’s say you have a bakery in Paris. One of your customers takes a photo in your bakery, and tag the location of your bakery on Instagram. When people see the location of the post, they can also find you. Can it get any better?

If you want to share the location of your business on Instagram with your audience, you can! Post a photo of your business to your Instagram page and tag the location. On your caption, you can tell people to find you by clicking on the photo’s geolocation.

Instagram location will also make it easy for you to identify your customers. Just click on the location and you will see all the users who have already given you their shoutouts. In return, you can thank them for supporting your business.

With Instagram location, you can also find locals who can come visit you at your business establishments.

3. Search by User

It is likely that you already know someone on Instagram — friends, relatives and co-workers. Adding them is a great way to start your Instagram journey. You do not need to add everybody you know (including your bosses) if you rather not do that for privacy reasons.

To search Instagram accounts you know, you need to enter their usernames in the Instagram search bar. Instagram will also recommend people you may know on Instagram. These people are likely your friends on Facebook.

The Instagram search bar is also great to help you follow your favorite brands, celebrities, YouTubers and bloggers. You may even find new inspiring social influencers to follow.

Please note that the minute you follow someone on Instagram, Instagram will give you recommendations of people to follow; people like them.

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4. Search by Keyword

To make your Instagram searches easy, use keywords when looking for Instagram users of particular niches. For example, if you want to browse for Gothic fashion, then your keyword should include the word ‘Gothic’ and ‘fashion’. You can click on the four categories shown on your screen in order to find anything related to Gothic fashion.

If you click on People, then you will discover all the Instagram users who have the word ‘Gothic fashion’ in their Instagram handle. If you click on Tags, then you will see all the hashtags that contain the word ‘Gothic’ and ‘fashion’. The hashtags can be related to all kinds of things, from fashion to architecture.

5. Search by Followers

When you search Instagram accounts, you should always follow people whose contents are relevant to you. That way you have every reason to look at their updates and like them if they inspire you. When you see their contents, you will also be able to see the people who follow them, like and comment on their posts.

Take advantage of the comment section and read what people are saying about their posts. Spend time getting to know these users, too, and see if they are relevant to your page. If you are a business, you can take this opportunity to engage with these people. They will likely be interested in you, too, since you have something in common with the people they follow.

💡 Related post: How to delete Instagram search history

Following other pages is also healthy for the growth of your Instagram page. You can get inspirations from the pages you follow and all the great contents that they have to offer.

Alternatively, you can also go on Twitter and search for the keyword you are looking for, followed by ‘Instagram.com’. This is a great method for finding images that do not contain hashtags but the keyword in the caption.

We hope you find this article helpful. Now that you know how to search Instagram accounts, hashtags and posts like a pro, don’t forget to leave a like and comment on the content you like so that in return, others will do the same for you, too, hence increase your Instagram exposure.

All the best!

Search Instagram like a pro

English

Screenshot of Instagram.

Editor's note: This OSINTCurio.us Technisette project post is based on a presentation on Instagram search from the 2019 Netherlands Conference on Open Source Data Search.

Before we start

While you don't need to have an Instagram account to search for data, it can come in handy to track certain hashtags and profiles.

You can create an account through the mobile app or website. To register an Instagram profile, use your email or Facebook account.

For most of what I'm going to show you, you don't need to login. If you need to log in to the page, click the small blue “Log In” button ( log in ) in the upper left corner of the screen.

Search string

Enter any Instagram profile at random to find the search bar at the top. You do not need to be logged in to do this.

For example, Instagram.com/search gives you a personal profile, but you'll see the search bar appear at the top of the screen.

Search for people

Searching for people on Instagram may not be as effective as it seems at first glance. For example, if I search for "Mark Zuckerberg", I will get a random profile first and only then the real profile of Mark Zuckerberg.

Google or any other search engine, in this case, may be more effective. Use, for example, advanced Google search (Google Dorks):

site: Instagram.com “mark zuckerberg” .

Left: Instagram search results. Right: Google results.

There are quite a few tools that provide the ability to search for content on Instagram.

Picdeer.com simplifies the user search process because hashtags and users are not mixed up in the search results as they are in a regular Instagram search. Here you will see a list of hashtags on the left and a list of users on the right.

Similar resources also include sites pictame.com and sometag.com.

Search results on Picdeer.com.

If you are looking for a specific type of user, such as people belonging to a particular group or religion, you might be interested in what people write in their biographies.

Searchmy.bio is a search engine that will only search in the bio section of user profiles.

You can sort the results according to different criteria: “most followers” ( by the number of subscribers ) or “most relevant” ( the most relevant ) or add hashtags to the search query.

Screenshot of Searchmy.bio.

When you find the profile you are interested in, you will find several useful extensions, starting with Helpertools for Instagram for Google Chrome.

In the example below, I used Mark Zuckerberg's profile, @zuck.

Helpertools for Instagram is partially free. I haven't used the paid version yet, but the free version has a couple of really cool features. In particular, you can compare two profiles with each other. These profiles must be opened in order for Helpertools to demonstrate its magical power. Depending on the number of followers/followers, this may take some time as Helpertools pauses in order to prevent Instagram from detecting the tool's suspicious activity.

But my favorite feature is the “Business account” section.

In Mark's case, it is marked as “false”, which means that Mark does not have a business account. Having a “business account” ( business account ) is not exactly the same as having a “verified” ( verified ) account. You can switch from a regular to a business profile by yourself by changing the settings, and Instagram does not check any information.

Results from Helpertools for Instagram.

Mark's account is not a business account. So let's find another example that is one.

For example, an account for a cheese shop in the Netherlands. Take a look at the profile: there is no contact information here.

Let's look in Helpertools to see if this page is a business account...

Yes, this is a business account!

We can even see what category they have chosen for their profile. But wait, this is just the beginning!

To get more information, you will now need to create a profile or log into your profile on a mobile phone (or a good emulator) connected to the internet.

Now open the mobile application and log into your account. (I used the android app). When you go to the profile of a cheese shop, you will see several buttons under the inscription bio. One of them is “Contact” ( contact ). If you click on “Contact”, a pop-up window will appear and give you all the contact information associated with this profile (which is entered by the account owner). Thus, we see an email address that was not visible before!

There is another button here: “Call” ( call ) and it will give you a phone number!

So we got an email address and a phone number.

Remember: if we were to explore the profile through the website, we would not see this information!

1. Log in through the mobile app. 2. Find the desired profile and check the “Contact” tab ( contact ). 3. Press “Call” ( to call ) to see the phone number or “Email” to see the email address.

Statflux.com will help you analyze your profile. In addition to information from the profile itself, it will also provide additional statistics, for example, the average number of likes and comments.

It will also give you the posts with the most likes and the most comments.

When you're looking at a profile with a lot of posts and don't know which one might be of interest to you, statflux.com can help you figure it out.

Examples from @zuck on Statflux.com.

Enlarge your profile photo and download images from your account

In Instagram, the profile picture is cropped (taken in a circle). But sometimes you want to see the whole photo, because that way you get a little more information about what's going on in the background, or, for example, see who else is in this image.

There is a way to get this from source, but the DownAlbum extension also allows you to do this.

DownAlbum can help you increase your profile picture not only on Instagram, but also on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Ask.fm and Weibo.

Once the extension is installed, a “Download photo” button will appear right below the profile picture ( download photo ). Click on the link and a new page will open with an enlarged profile photo that you can use to explore further.

Example from DownAlbum.

DownAlbum also gives you the opportunity to download photos to your computer - just right-click on the enlarged image and save the photo.

Another possibility is the website instasave.io. Enter the username of the profile you are interested in and click the “download” button ( download ) under each photo to save it.

Both of these functions will help you download images to your computer one by one.

But what if you need to download all the photos in your profile? To do this, there is an extension for Google Chrome called Downloader for Instagram + Direct Message , which can help you download many photos.

When this extension is installed, you will see a button in the top right corner.

Select the rightmost button to download the entire profile. Make sure you have downloaded the entire page to download all materials. As you can see in this example, Zuckerberg has 141 posts, but this tool shows that there are only 24. If you scroll down the page, you can download more photos.

And one more thing: don't forget about the “Tagged” section ( search by tags ) on Instagram! To do this, you need to log in, but sometimes this gives you the opportunity to explore many other images on the topic. The “Tagged” section under the bio, next to the “Posts” section ( publications ).

Shown on the right: Downloader for Instagram + Direct Message.

Instagram Stories

Instagram “Stories” ( and Stories ) are short videos or photos that users can edit by adding stickers, text, color, and GIFs. (If you want to learn more about the stories, check out this article from Buffer Editor Ash Reid.)

Usually stories are displayed for 24 hours, but you can "highlight" them so that people can see them longer. Such highlighted stories (“highlight”) can be categorized.

You can tell if a profile has stories by looking at the profile picture. If there is a colored circle around it, then there are stories in the profile.

If you want to see these stories, you will need to login.

Left: @zuck's profile has no stories. Right: @bbc profile has stories.

Sometimes a profile has these highlighted stories that are categorized. You will see these stories right below the bio.

Click on a category to view stories.

Under bio you will find highlighted stories categorized.

Search for stories

Stories can only be searched if they are tagged with a location (geotag) or a hashtag.

You can search for stories in the web version; if you search for a hashtag or geotag at the top, you will see a round photo in a colored circle. Click on a photo to find stories that match that specific tag or location.

Instagram search results.

You can make it easier to find stories by using the Downloader for Instagram extension in Google Chrome.

When set, a small icon with Instagram colors can be seen at the top right.

Click on the logo to open a new page where you will see a menu as shown in the screenshot; now you will be able to watch your friends' stories, their online broadcasts, location, as well as the search function.

I searched for the hashtag #Amsterdam and chose one of the options: with a small flag at the end.

Search results from Downloader for Instagram.

If you click on search results, no stories are displayed. Click on the icon with a black eye, then they will immediately appear. With the arrows (left and right button), you can switch between them.

The user who uploaded the stories is shown on the left (shown in blue in the screenshot).

And also very useful: Downloader for Instagram gives you the option to download one or more stories related to the same hashtag (the feature is circled in red at the top left).

Download stories using the buttons in the top right corner.

Keyword search

If you're not looking for hashtags, but just words used in posts, Instagram is probably not the best tool, as you can see in the screenshot example below on the left.

For this, it is better to use Google search or any other search engine.

For Google, use the search operator Inurl:instagram.com/p/ “keyword” , where the word “keyword” (keyword ) is replaced by the word or phrase you want to find. For example, I took “dinner time” ( dinner time ).

Left: Keyword search on Instagram. Right: Keyword search on Google.

Now you can see that one of the results contains the words “dinner time”, while the phrase “dinner time” ( dinner time ) is not used as a hashtag here. Therefore, if you were to enter these keywords in the Instagram search bar, you would not find this post.

Google search result.

Search hashtags

In the search results, check more than just the first few photos. These will be "Top" ( most popular ) photos, but they won't always give you what you're looking for. Be sure to scroll down and check out “Most Recent” ( newest ).

To search by hashtags, remember to use a symbol (eg #osint).

And one more thing: there are many websites that will help you search for hashtags on Instagram. For example, pictame.com and hashatit.com.

Instagram hashtag search. Scroll down to “Most recent” ( newest ).

Hashtag tracking

When you find a hashtag and want to follow it, make sure you are logged in and click on “Follow” ( follow ) to see new posts that are associated with that particular hashtag.

How to follow a hashtag on Instagram.

Download posts with selected hashtags

Downloading posts with the hashtags you need is very easy if you use the Google Chrome extension Downloader for Instagram .

Open the page to the extent you need to download and use the extension to download the posts associated with the hashtag.

Download posts with specific hashtags using “Downloader for Instagram”

Search by location

You can search by location using the search bar at the top of the website. You will be able to identify the location by the icon in the form of an inverted drop.

Select a location to see what stories and posts are published from that location. Moreover, in order to choose a geolocation, you yourself do not have to be physically located in this place.

Please note that the user can specify any location, and this does not mean at all that he really was there. So a photo of me standing in front of the Grand Central Station in Amsterdam could be geolocated as Times Square in New York simply because I told Instagram that the photo was taken there. If you want to include your real location in your photo, you must give Instagram permission to use your location data.

Search results by location on Instagram.

Are you not sure if Instagram has the place you are looking for? Or do you not know the correct spelling of a geographical name? Check out Instagram.com/explore/locations. Below is a list of countries. Select the country and city you are interested in.

Filter your results by country and city to see what locations are available in a particular city.

Search for previously published posts by location

An Open Data Research (OSINT) enthusiast shared this video with me on how to find Instagram posts by location within a given time period. I have to admit that this is quite difficult, but although the video was made back in 2017, this method continues to work in 2019! Watch the video here and the script in Python here .

This video explains how to calculate the date you are interested in. Once you have a date, you can search for the location you need.

Look at the URL; at the end you add: ?max_id= followed by the number you calculate.

For example: https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/3001373/times-square-new-york-city/?max_id=1817012758118400

Scroll down to the “Most recent” section ( newest ) - it now shows older posts.

The photo on the left is dated August 27, 2011, but it appears as the first result in the “Most recent” section ( newest ).

That's it!

These were some basic Instagram search methods.

Of course, there are a million other ways, methods, websites, extensions and scripts that you can use to make your Instagram search easier. If your favorite method is not listed in this article, please leave your comments below or email our editor at [email protected]! This way we can all learn from each other.

Are you ready to learn more?! Open Part 2 (Part 2) on how to search on Instagram!

This article originally appeared on OSINTCurio.us and is reprinted here with their permission.

The OSINTCurio.us project is an open source intelligence news source that offers blogs, how-to videos, webcasts and videos, and a podcast every 2 weeks. This project is led by a community of OSINT experts, some of whom are known only by their nicknames (like @Technisette) and others by their real names, including journalists such as BBC and Bellingcat investigative Benjamin Strick.

How to search on Instagram: a guide to search in the popular photo service

The popularity of the social network Instagram has increased significantly in recent years, and among young users under 25 years old it has even overtaken the social network market leader Facebook. The ease of publishing photos, the emergence and development of the “Stories” function (disappearing 24 hours after the publication of pictures), interest in the service from famous people made it even more popular. So we decided to go back to Instagram as a platform for search and fact checking. True, the growth in popularity of this service played a cruel joke on it (which happened to Facebook at one time): it is becoming increasingly difficult to trust photos published on Instagram, because this platform has also become a convenient tool for spreading fake and propaganda content. However, the amount of user-generated content posted here, as well as the popularity of the service, make it hard to ignore.

Instagram search: challenges and attempts to overcome them

Since our last post, Instagram has added new features, grown in popularity, and has become more widely used to spread fake news. At the same time, searching on Instagram has become more difficult. The API (a tool for accessing the built-in functions of an application or service) has received even more restrictions. The result of this was that the external search tools mentioned in the first article two years ago stopped working. At the same time, fact-checkers paid attention to Instagram and began to explore the possibilities of searching for the service, looking for undocumented features, which we will also talk about in our material.

When using Instagram for fact-checking, one thing needs to be clear: anyone can fool their readers by installing fake location tags or posting photos that aren't their own. At the same time, if there are at least some real photos in the profile, they can help to discover the real data of the author or refute the fakes published by him. However, due to the complexities of search and the limitations of the API, which we have already mentioned, this work of checking content for authenticity can be quite painstaking.

Instagram search: desktop or mobile app

You can work with Instagram on your smartphone or computer, viewing content through the web version. Instagram as a social network was made primarily for mobile devices, so the capabilities of the mobile version available through a special application and the web version of the service are somewhat different. It is impossible to say unequivocally that one of the versions will be more convenient to use, because with all the mobile-oriented nature of many modern services, the use of a large screen and a full-fledged keyboard prevails over the convenience of the mobile version of the service. In addition, the ability to download a photo and analyze it with a full-fledged graphic editor will provide additional information during the fact-checking process. At the same time, working with a photo archive on a smartphone allows you to analyze it almost anywhere and at any time.

Instagram search for trend analysis: Instagram Search & Explore

Instagram, like any other social network, is interested in offering its users interesting and useful content for them. This feature can be used to analyze trends and view popular publications. This is what the Instagram Search & Explore section is for. This section is individualized for each user. The application itself selects photos and videos in this section, popular and those that are liked by the people with whom you are connected, and with their current publications. In other words, this section is a great way to keep track of what is popular and discussed in certain areas. To get started, simply follow certain people, mark their photos as liked, and after a while, the Instagram Search & Explore section will show you other popular photos being discussed.

Instagram search features

Instagram search is very different from traditional search engines. In both Google, as in other search engines, and in the very limited search on Facebook, a user can enter multiple search queries. This rule does not work on Instagram. More precisely, you can enter multiple search terms, but the results will always show the one that is most related to the query, and with its first word. Not the best feature of Instagram search is the fact that each user receives individual search results based on their previous searches, their own interests and those of friends, as well as general social network trends.

The result can be sorted into different categories. These are the top results (the most relevant profiles, hashtags, locations), as well as separate accounts (Instagram user profiles), hashtags, places (locations). Convenient and visual sorting is available only when searching through a mobile application. On the site, the entries are also grouped according to the “best” / “newest” types, but you need to scroll the list a little. When working through the web interface, you can independently limit the search results, for example, by adding "@" or "#" before the search query - if you need to search for people or hashtags, respectively.

A huge disadvantage of Instagram search is that it is not possible to search for individual user posts using the built-in tools, which greatly limits traditional search. In other words, you can find profiles, places (geolocation), hashtags, you can view photos tagged with these hashtags or assigned to a specific location. However, searching through a profile and finding photos published in it, for example, for a certain time period, Instagram search does not allow.

Search by hashtags and places (geolocations)

tag. A useful nuance is that you can choose the most popular entries associated with the hashtag, or you can select the most recent ones. Viewing recent recordings can be useful, for example, to view certain events, such as photos taken at protests or during natural disasters.

You can even choose to follow a hashtag to see the most popular posts in your home feed regularly. Similarly, you can select a place and see photos associated with the place

When you go to the hashtag page, a list of hashtags related to the topic you entered in the search bar will be displayed at the top. This can be useful for exploring related topics.

Geolocation search works in a similar way - the service allows you to select a place and view the latest and most popular photos associated with this point. After the advent of the "stories" function - "Stories" (disappearing 24 hours after the publication of the photo), the search by geolocation, as well as the search by hashtags, was supplemented by the ability to view the stories of users accompanied by a hashtag and added to stories. Just click on the place name or tag and Instagram will start showing you those stories. Finding out if there are any tags or places of history associated with the name you are looking for is very simple. If there are, the title will get the same red ring mark that stories get from users. True, for a popular tag or place, viewing stories is a very labor-intensive business, because their number can be simply huge, at the same time, this function can be useful for analyzing hot events.

Instagram Search: More Tools

Working with Instagram through the mobile app alone can be tricky, especially when you have to look closely at photos. In this case, the web version of Instagram and a number of additional plugins for the Chrome browser will come to the rescue.

The Desktop for Instagram plugin https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/desktop-for-instagram/nlhjgcligpbnjphflfdbmabbmjidnmek?hl=en will allow you to view Instagram through a browser, emulating the work with the service on a mobile device. The plugin supports downloading photos and videos, which can be useful, for example, to study the photo more closely, to check on which device the photo was taken.

To download photos and videos from your Instagram profile, you can use another Chrome plugin Downloader for Instagram https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/downloader-for-instagram/dhchoilkelgbblajmpbhpofhheecgkhh. The advantage of this plugin is downloading stories from Instagram.

. friends of the person you are looking for and analyzing it.

Service GramFind http://gramfind. com/ replaces the standard Instagram search functions when working with the service via the web. GramFind's functionality is very limited - just enter a hashtag or username, and as a result, the service will show Instagram users and hashtags associated with the query. Actually, that's all: you can't view new pictures by tag - the basic feature of the Instagram mobile application - here.

Google it: how Google can help you search on Instagram

A simple Google search will solve some Instagram search tasks, such as trying to find a user of the service. You just need to search the Instagram site and play around with the username

The request in this case might look like this

"site: instagram.com [username]"

For example site:instagram. com edward snowden

Another very useful feature is to view photos and comments of Instagram users in other accounts. A properly constructed Google query will help solve this problem as well.

The request in this case looks like this: you need to search for the username, but exclude the account of this person. It is very important that in this case, individual posts on Instagram will be displayed in the search results - something that cannot be achieved with the standard search functions of the service. And more importantly, the issue can be limited to a time period, that is, to find comments or posts for a certain day or week.

Here are examples of requests of this kind:

“that_snowden” site:instagram.com -site:https://www.instagram.com/that_snowden/

“serenawilliams” site:instagram.com -site:www.instagram.com/serenawilliams/

In the first case, we are interested in mentions or comments on Edward Snowden's account (there are none, because Snowden is not very active on Instagram), the second example is given to study the Instagram activity of tennis player Serena Williams.

Obviously, these Google tricks for Instagram search are possible only for open accounts and open posts and in situations where the user is tagged in the posts.