Got a minute? Check out our quick update on what's new in the industry.

Instagram
Instagram is testing out a new function that would allow users to follow specific hashtags in addition to profiles. Related posts would appear in the home feed based on the hashtags a user follows. Instagram hasn’t announced yet when or if we’ll see this function rolled out to everyone.

Our Take:

• We think this feature is a great move for brands, particularly those with branded hashtags. Having your audience follow your hashtag directly could go a long way towards building community and engagement.
• The ability to follow hashtags could also be beneficial for brands and marketers to track certain industry-related hashtags and see how people are using them.

Google
Google recently changed the way they display snippets in search results, increasing the snippet length from 160 characters to almost 230. A snippet is the page description that’s shown below the URL in an organic search result. Google made this announcement about the change: We recently made a change to provide more descriptive and useful snippets, to help people better understand how pages are relevant to their searches. This resulted in snippets becoming slightly longer, on average. Google is reportedly updating the page descriptions dynamically, based on the user query and content visible on the page.

Our Take:

• We like the idea of increased page descriptions as it means more room for relevant keywords and descriptors that could help with SEO and customer clicks.
• Google may be updating these descriptions dynamically so it is very important to have relevant copy on each page of your site.

Snapchat
Snapchat is switching up their design to separate out posts from one’s friends from content created by publishers. Instead of showing these stories in the same place, they’ll now be separated. Snapchat said this is their attempt to separate “social” from “media” and position themselves as more of a communications app.

Our Take:

• Snapchat has been struggling in the growth department lately, especially due to the popularity of similar platforms like Instagram Stories. While this redesign is something new, it still remains to be seen whether it will make a difference for the platform.
• Today’s app users seem to enjoy integration more than separation (see Facebook and Instagram’s combination of posts and Stories into the same app), so this move could be a risk for Snapchat.