Here’s a good way to think about it. If you had a friend who you saw everyday, and today you asked them “what’s going on with you?”, they would tell you about the things that happened between yesterday and today – in chronological order. Now, if you had another friend you haven’t seen in a year, and you asked them the same question, they’re more likely to pick out the most noteworthy events that happened during that period. It’s impractical for them to tell you EVERYTHING that happened in a year. That’s likely to take more than a year, itself.
I think Andreessen-Horowitz partner, Benedict Evans puts it succinctly…
A map that shows everything in a country would be the same size as the country. You have to choose coverage or detail. Same for the internet
— Benedict Evans (@BenedictEvans) February 7, 2016
Instagram announced the move in a post on their Tumblr page, yesterday. “The order of photos and videos in your feed will be based on the likelihood you’ll be interested in the content, your relationship with the person posting, and the timeliness of the post”.
Most people miss out on 70 percent of our Instagram feed, because well, we aren’t on Instagram 24/7. Most of us. “What this is about is making sure that the 30 percent you see is the best 30 percent possible”, said Instagram CEO, Kevin Systrom. For now, only a few people have access to the feature – as usual – and their engagement with it will determine whether it gets a worldwide roll out.
Instagram’s parent company, Facebook is known for their algorithmic (read: curated) timeline, and Twitter joined the party recently, to improve the user experience and grow their user base (as they desperately need to).
Do you think this is a step in the right direction for IG? Join the conversation on Radar.
