Popular image-sharing platform Imgur has announced the biggest update to the site since it launched back in February 2009.
In a bid to enhance user experience and increase the viral potential of its images, Imgur now allows users to upload their photos directly to the site via a new icon which will appear in the navigation bar on every page. The full release of the update is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 29.
Until now, users had to share their images on Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, or other sites to get enough traction to reach Imgur's central image gallery. With the new updates, images submitted directly to the central gallery have a better chance at going viral, as users can find, upvote/downvote and share new images on the site itself.
"The upgrade means images and memes can spread even faster," an Imgur spokesperson told WebProNews. "Where sharing on Facebook may elicit a handful of likes from your close-knit community, positive or negative feedback from communities were sharing is so deeply engrained, like Reddit and Imgur, can generate tens or hundreds of thousands of responses."
"The interplay between Reddit and Imgur is interesting as well, so no doubt Imgur giving its community the ability to bypass Reddit and share images directly on Imgur will be perceives as a shift."
Imgur is now bringing its Gallery to the forefront, which will now serve as the Imgur homepage. Users can now drag and drop content directly to the page, use the upload toolbox, or use the new icon. When adding multiple images an album will now be automatically created, and users will also be able to upload images to appear immediately in the "New" section of the site's Gallery.
"This is the biggest update we've made to Imgur since we launched, and we're stoked! Our community has been asking for this and we're committed to giving them the absolute easiest and best way to share images, and to give those images a chance to go viral," said Imgur founder and CEO Alan Schaaf.
For a comprehensive tutorial detailing the host of new updates to image and content sorting, user moderation, and reputation, head over to the Imgur Blog.
