Instagram finally launches full-blown image feeds on the web

Popular photo-sharing service Instagram has finally brought feeds of filtered photos from mobile apps to the web.

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Facebook-owned Instagram has focused on a “mobile first” strategy for two years as it has gathered more than 100 million users. But now the service finally is making it possible to get most of the Instagram experience (minus the photo-taking) on the web, following its decision to open up web-based profiles in November.

Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom writes in a blog post:

Today, I’m very excited to announce the launch of a product we’ve been wanting to build for quite some time now. Since our launch in October of 2010, we’ve focused on building a simple app that has inspired creativity while capturing everyday moments through the lens of your mobile phone. In fact, our focus on building out a mobile-only experience is a unique path that we’ve chosen for many reasons, most important of which is that Instagram, at its core, is about seeing and taking photos on-the-go.

However, to make Instagram even more accessible to our growing community, at the end of last year we started to expand to the desktop web, giving you the ability to see profiles from instagram.com. To continue that path, as of today, you can now browse your Instagram feed on the web – just like you do on your mobile device..

To access your feed of Instagram photos on the web, just go to Instagram.com and log in. As you can see from my photo above, you can see the picture in large detail in you browser. You can also like the photos or leave comments.

Scrolling through the feed on the web and interacting with content there seems to be another way for Instagram to keep people interested in what their friends are sharing. Phone dead or unable to see that photo well? Just check your feed on the web.

Another reason to make Instagram more accessible? Instagram wants its members on it every day. The company has been accused of losing up to 25 percent of its daily users in recent months. Instagram hasn’t exactly denied those questionable stats, but it did release a monthly user count. As of mid-January, the service had 90 million monthly active users who upload an average of 40 million photos per day.

While there are several features in the web feed, you can’t upload photos there. Systrom says Instagram does not intend to add photo-sharing from the web because he wants the service to be about photos from “the real world.” He writes:

We believe that you should be able to access Instagram on a variety of different devices, any of which may be convenient to you at a given moment – including your desktop computer or tablet. We do not offer the ability to upload from the web as Instagram is about producing photos on the go, in the real world, in realtime. On the other hand, Instagram for the web is focused on making the browsing experience a fast, simple and enjoyable one.

Will you use the Instagram feed on the web?