Instagram’s leveling-up its “business search” capabilities. It’s definitely nowhere close to Google, but is nonetheless worth watching.

Within IG’s Explore 🔎 tab there’s a search-bar across the top that organizes its findings according to preset sections:  Top, Accounts, Audio, Tags (i.e., hashtags), and Places.

Places, for instance, lists out a bunch of pinned📍 locations — select an option and it’ll plot it on a map (plus display a bunch of info about the business/location).

From there, if one taps anywhere else on the map, IG displays the user’s city location and reveals a handful of predefined search categories, which currently includes:  Restaurants, Cafes, Sights, Hotels, Parks & Gardens, and Bars. The idea is to search for what’s around you or proximate to a point of interest. You can also zoom in/out to redo your search within the visible area of map.

I predict Instagram will eventually add additional/custom categories down the road (as in, “Real Estate Agents,” possibly).

Many agents, whether they’re using a Creator or Business profile, have modified their account category from “Real Estate Agent” to, say, “Entrepreneur,” to expand their sound-and-music options in IG’s audio library for Reels and such. However, if Instagram does indeed add more categories to its map-search feature, agents may opt to switch their category back to “Real Estate Agent” to improve their odds of ranking. Not now, necessarily—just if/when that expansion occurs.

For search engines and social networks alike, local discovery is no doubt a trend of growing importance — so keep an eye 👁 on it, friends.