Instagram and this Blog

Instagram has made a few changes over the past few weeks.

Firstly, it is no longer possible to view my posts without an Instagram login. The people I work with often have no interest in creating an Instagram account. Secondly, URLs, such as to the Google Photos albums I create are no longer "live" and clickable. This was long the case in the app, but in the web interface, links worked until recently. Thirdly, the search change is truing baffling. Who implements a search that excludes exact matches? This change has rendered hash tags useless, as it's no longer possible to find my posts by job number tag. 

There's just no reason for the time and effort it takes to make posts to Instagram if they can't be accessed by the watch owners.

I've been meaning to do this eventually anyway. I have extracted all my content from Instagram (as I did from Google+ before that), and will be gradually getting it posted here, back dated years into the past. I see no reason to delete the Instagram account, and will probably post something there now and then, but new content on projects will be here on the blog going forward. 

Posts here will be less frequent as it's more work, but they are retrievable by job number.

The End of a Platform, Again?

Couple of things... 

First, I have learned in the past couple of days that it is no longer possible to see Instagram posts via the desktop interface without logging in to Instagram. Secondly, the hash tags I put on all my posts with the job numbers, so that a watch project can be searched for, are no longer functional. Instagram search results are now fulling dominated by Korean spam. This second problem applies to all users and all searches as far as I can tell.

I don't know if these are temporary problems. But as it is Instagram is no longer of any use to me. I need some way to keep watch owners informed with text and photos. It has to be *extremely* easy to use for them, and quick and easy to use for me from my phone while working. The solution needs to be free, searchable and linkable without a login.

 I'm open to suggestions. 

Like Instagram?

There's more to see on Instagram!

Follow here!
https://www.instagram.com/elgintime/

New Instagram Stream

Instagram finally pushed out (to me at least) simple support for multiple accounts on mobile, just this morning. So I took the opportunity to create a second account for other-than-horological content, which is to say generally more personal, mundane and everyday ish. It wasn't completely straight forward to get it working, but it is working now. So, take your pick, both or neither!

https://www.instagram.com/elgintime/

https://www.instagram.com/jssexton/

Yet Another Photo Stream!

I make pretty heavy use of Google+, a service which is, unfortunately, shall we say... sort of adrift these days. So I'm adding something new to see how it goes. Now you can follow Elgintime on Instagram!

http://instagram.com/elgintime

I have not used Instagram in the past because it just can't connect and engage folks the way a page of text and photos can. But we'll see how it goes and how much interest there is. Being as simplistic as it is, it certainly isn't any extra effort to post!

I am also experimenting with some other photo management sites as what I have been using has become... unsound... and continues to have even the most basic functionality removed. Stay tuned on that.