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Instagram rings in the new year with desktop-optimized NYE photo stream

Instagram rings in the new year with desktop-optimized NYE photo stream

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instagram nye
instagram nye

As the world rolls into 2013, Instagram is showcasing celebrations from around the globe with the help of a New Years Eve photo stream that can be viewed from mobile devices and desktop browsers. In addition to compiling pictures in a clean layout, the desktop version of the stream lets viewers quickly hop between time zones and cities to see what's happening at each location as the clock strikes 12. When viewing through a mobile browser, however, users are hit with a much less inspired page with only a handful of photos and no way to navigate to other time zones or areas — a clear sign that Instagram is targeting the desktop audience.

The New Years event is the first big occasion that takes advantage of the service's recently launched web profiles, which makes Instagram more accessible to everyone, regardless of computing platform and whether or not they have the app installed. Additionally, the new layout might suggest that Instragram will use a similar approach to other big events, combating the likes of Twitter for up to the moment social networking. Considering the vast amount of people that will be celebrating in some fashion over the course of 24 hours, there will surely be plenty of photos to populate the stream to demonstrate how popular the platform can be for both users and non-users, especially after the service's Twitter integration was removed to drive more traffic to its own site.