Adding salt to the wound is the fact that the top results apparently not sorted by relevant. Scrolling down the results, one will find much more relevant results than those listed at the top. They apparently are not sorted by popularity either. Results with as few as 3 likes ranked above posts with as many as 2397. I have no idea how Instagram's algorithm determined what would be the top results in the search. In fact, it appears to be totally random. Recent posts certainly did not show up near the top. Some of the top poss on the search I performed on August 30 go back as far 2017.
A search on Google reveals that Instagram apparently did away with the option to search by "Most Recent" some time ago. It also revealed that I am not the only one who is unhappy about it. There are complaints about it on blogs, Reddit, and elsewhere on the Web. One post on Reddit made five months ago complained that Instagram had made hashtags useless. I really can't disagree with them.
The good news is that if one wants to search for Instagram posts by chronological order, one still can, although not on Instagram. Picuki is an Instagram that has been around for a while. Hashtag search on Picuki are still sorted with the most recent at the top. Now the downside of Picuki is that it only searches for posts. If one wants to see Reels, then they are out of luck.
I honestly don't see the logic in Instagram doing away with sorting searches by "Most Recent." It honestly makes no sense to me. To makes matters worse, I honestly don't understand how Instagram's algorithm determines what the top post on any given search is. It certainly isn't by relevance and it certainly isn't by popularity. Quite frankly, I think Instagram has rendered their hashtag search useless. I can only hope that Instagram comes to their senses and restores the ability to sort searches by "Most Recent."
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