It looks like Instagram has decided to give product tagging to the masses as the company’s latest beta feature becomes public in an announcement sure to distance the app even further from pure photography and video and move it closer toward eCommerce.
Of course, whether or not that is a good thing depends on who you ask.
For those of you that might need some catching up, you can do that over at this link right here. It should give you a rundown of what the feature did while it was being tested.
It’s all part of Instagram’s broader strategy to become the go-to app for just about everything.
While tagging people and places is nothing new to the service, product tagging is meant to connect users with actual eCommerce websites offering the product featured in a photo. It’s sort of the next step in the evolution of the whole concept really and probably one that makes a lot of sense when you consider how much product discovery people do on Instagram.
But with so many things going on at once, you might be wondering if it is all a bit much. You wouldn’t be the only person. From competing with TikTok to YouTube and Snapchat, Instagram is constantly pivoting to whatever is hot right now and adapting to it. No story in this area would be complete without mention of the company’s vaunted “shift away from photography” – only to backtrack on that statement to emphasize that, yes, photography is still really important on Instagram. And, despite Twitter’s claims to the contrary, it is still really the only relevant app in that regard that everyone uses.
As always, we’d love to know your thoughts on Instagram’s product tagging features in the comments below.
Check out some of our other photography news on Light Stalking at this link right here.
