This is Now streams real-time feed from Instagram

A new website called "This is Now" lets users view real-time feeds comprising Instagram shots uploaded by users across various locations such as Sydney, New York and Tokyo. As per the description on This is Now, the website is a "a visual composition which uses real-time updates from the ever popular Instagram application based on users geo-tag locations. The tool streams photos instantly as soon as they are uploaded on Instagram and captures a cities movement, in a fluid story".

A feed from This is Now

The website has been created by developers Marcio Puga, Mauricio Massaia and Per Thoresson. On arriving at the website, users are asked to select a city from among seven cities displayed. After picking a location, users are taken to a page that is being constantly updated with myriad images, all Instagram uploads happening that minute. Right at the top is "What is this?", clicking on which, users are given some trivia on the location in numbers. Suppose, you pick New York as your location on This is Now. The drop-down snippet reads, "NewYork-now is a highly addictive real-time visualization tool displaying all the photos as they happen within New York on Instagram. So far, 183780 photos have been seen and 146055 photos have been clicked through NewYork-now, by a total of 237305 people. These people normally spend an average of 2 minutes and 38 seconds watching the activity before they find something better to do. You've been already watching it for 27 minutes." 

The image feed is streamed in real-time and displays the newest entries. The website has been built using a combination of Node.js + Socket.io. Real-time photo updates from the Instagram API based on geolocation are shown. The website specifies that it uses the Instagram API but is not endorsed or certified by Instagram.

Since its launch, Instagram has catapulted into a widely popular image sharing and uploading platform. Last month, we had carried reports of the service surpassing the 80 million download mark through its iPhone and Android apps, a remarkable feat for a company that is merely two years old. In the same report, it was also revealed that the number of photos shared on Instagram stood at 4 billion. Kevin Systrom, creator of Instagram announced the availability of Instagram for Android at SXSW in March this year. He had stated that the app had over 30 million users. Reportedly, Systrom said that the combination of Android and networking means that Instagram are able to grow faster now more than ever. The photo editing and sharing application was reported to hit 10 million downloads in its first 22 days of existence on the Android platform. Instagram for Android has obviously had a fair deal of success, the certainty of which could be seen right when the application for Android launched.

The latest Instagram update for Android brought two main features: one, support for the newly launched Nexus 7 tablet by Google; two, the ability to upload photos directly to Flickr, the popular online image hosting site owned by Yahoo!. The app for iPhone users got a new update that is designed to bring about a renewed profile tabs, visual improvements and tweaks to improve optimization. Some more customization has been brought to the Facebook app as well.