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Less than a month ago, on October 5 2010, not a single person had used Instagram publicly. It wasn't even released on the App Store. Today, the iPhone application has had over 750 000 photos uploaded, experiencing growth at a phenomenal rate, even by web standards. Business Insider went as far as to say "it could become this decade's equivalent of Flickr." So what is it, and why is everybody hopping on board?

Instagram provides a quick of way of sharing photos, with effects, across an entire spectrum of social networking sites, right from your iPhone. The inspiration, as the team note, came from a cross between old Polaroid cameras and new social sharing ideas. The "instant" feature of a Polaroid camera gave birth to what over 500 000 people now know as Instagram, the photo sharing app of choice.

“I think that communicating via images is one of these mediums that you’re going to see take off over the next few years because of a fundamental shift in the enabling technology.“ - Kevin Systrom, CEO Burbn (Instagram)

The free application supports all generations of the iPhone, and can upload photos (or "posts" as they are known) to Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr and Facebook. In addition, users can check in to Foursquare whenever a photo is uploaded with a location attached. Photos can be commented on, and everyone has the ability to make use of a Twitter-style "follow" feature, allowing users to follow one another's photos on-the-go. With over a dozen filters to choose from, even poorer quality photos can turn out semi-decent once uploaded. The application makes it fun, rather than a chore, to upload photos to a plethora of social network sites, for all your friends to see.

The development team are "just getting started" - be sure to keep an eye out for Burbn on the news, both here and on the App Store. I have a feeling that it's a name we aren't going to forget any time soon.

[Quote courtesy of TechCrunch, image with thanks to Instagram]