First, the bad news. Instagram’s bare-bones website is still vastly inferior to the popular and widely used photo-sharing mobile app. The thinking seems to be that, since people generally take photos with their phones anyway, Instagram’s mobile experience is all that matters. But, as reported in Mashable by Stan Schroeder, instagram.com has taken some crucial steps toward sucking less. And admitting that one has a problem is the first step towards getting better. In the past, Instagram’s site was pretty much only useful for browsing through one’s own posts. But Instagram has taken some baby steps toward making its web experience somewhat more satisfying with the addition of a notifications tab, denoted with a heart icon, that informs users whether they have new followers or if people have liked or commented on their posts. That’s something, right?
Unfortunately, as Schroeder explains, the improved Instagram site is still missing some crucial features from the mobile app. There’s no Explore tag, for instance, making it difficult to find new content. That aforementioned notifications tab will not show activity in friends’ accounts either. And users still can’t post photos from the web interface, nor does the site provide support for multiple accounts the way the mobile app does. The site, frankly, has a long way to go before it can actually be considered useful. “Nevertheless,” Schroeder writes, “with this latest addition you might actually want to open Instagram on the web every now and then.”