Instagram, the photo-sharing tool that made headlines as the reason people start blurring their photos during a time of high-definition TVs and 3D movies, has captured the hearts of millions. The fact that it was recently acquired by Facebook for $1billion is also hard to ignore. While some wonder about the future of the photo-loving app, let’s take a step back and take a look at some apps out there that were built to enhance your photo-sharing experience on Instagram.

Here is a list of 20 apps, named in one variation or the other (it’s a toss between Insta and gram except for one exception) that can help you get more out of Instagram. If you have others that you think can beat the ones in this list, don’t keep it to yourself. Drop in your two cents in the comments area.

Recommended Reading: 25 Websites To Have Fun With Your Photos

Gramgrab

Gramgrab is a simple web application that displays your Instagram photo collection with hover-action to display details of a photo such as the number of likes, time uploaded and filter used. At a click, you can download the photo directly to your computer.

Quickagram

Quickagram lets you browse through random Instagram photos listed on gallery and map. Clicking on the image will open the photo to its original size with options to like, share on Facebook or comment on Instagram directly from the page.

Gramfeed

Gramfeed is like Quickgram but with more features. It’s like browsing Instagram on a web browser with links to user’s profile with the follow button as well as comment and like options. There is the Facebook Like button as well as Pins for Pinterest.

Copygram

Copygram is a near-perfect alternative to Instagram’s native iPhone app as it is beautifully presented on web browsers and the iPad. With Copygram, you get to browse photos of your own and other users in grid or list view with options to view in original size, follow other users, comment and like. There is option to backup photos by downloading them to your computer too.

Instac.at

Instac.at is a simple web application to search for relevant Instagram photos based on #tags and keywords. There’re no other options available, and clicking on a photo will direct you to the original Instagram link.

Instagrille

Instagrille is a desktop app for your Instagram. It runs directly from your computer with all the options as available on the native mobile app. You can also opt to receive instant notifications whenever your friend posts new photos.

Printstagram

Prinstagram as in the name, provide you with options to print your own Instagram photos as beautiful and presentable mini albums, posters and stickers.

Instagrid

Instagrid is like a feed reader for Instagram which you will be able to subscribe via email. The display options are in grid or list view, and clicking on the photo will redirect you to the original Instagram link.

Instawar

Instawar is a little like the old ‘Facemash’ where you get to compare between two photos and pick the one you like. When you think the two photos match one another, hitting the ‘Pair’ button will post the two photos as a pair in a Tumblr page.

Instagram Popular Photos

Instagram Popular Photos collects only popular photos from Instagram and displays them in a simple web page with options to view in original size and check on the user’s other collections. There are no sharing, liking and commenting features, however you can subscribe to your favorite feed.

Followgram

Followgram is a full-featured web app for your Instagram. The application is complete with photo galleries, and Follow button that you can share on your blog. You can also follow other users by scanning their custom QR code using your phone, and share your QR with others too.

Extragram

Extragram is also another full-featured web application for your Instagram with an elegant photo gallery. There are more sharing options found on Extragram.

Instarchive

Instarchive is a simple web tool to help you download all of your Instagram photos in a single archive folder.

Hashtagram

Hashtagram is a slideshow for Instagram photos. It rotates images in full screen and real time, based on Twitter feed. Every keyword and #tag searches will crawl for results based on the latest Instagram photos that appear on Twitter. Hashtagram integrates well with Twitter allowing you to easily retweet, quote or reply to the user.

Webbygram

Webbygram is another web app for your Instagram, presented in a list layout with complete features as found on Instagram. There’s however no option to follow other users.

Insta-great

Insta-great presents Instagram photos in a horizontal timeline. You can easily search based on #tag, follow other users and like photos however there is no option to comment on a photo.

Statigram

Statigram is more than just web app alternative to your Instagram mobile app. It provides you with many great features not found anywhere else and that includes statistics, Facebook custom tab, cover creator and Timeline integration.

INK361

INK361 is just another web app for your Instagram, and it comes with complete features as alternatives to your current favorite.

Instagram Downloader

Instagram Downloader is a simple desktop application to download your Instagram photos to backup.

Webstagram

Webstagram is also a web gallery for your Instagram, and it comes with complete features so you can easily comment, like a photo and follow other users.

One more

Screenstagram

Screenstagram uniquely collects favorite Instagram photos from your and your friends’ collections, and displays them as a screen saver on your computer.

Related posts:

1. Export and Backup Your Instagram Photos [Quicktip]
2. How to Browse Instagram Like Pinterest [Quicktip]
3. Top 20 Android Photography Apps
4. A Look Into: Facebook Camera App for iPhone

Many of us come into contact with OAuth when browsing around the Web, and most of us aren’t even aware of its existence. OAuth(Open Authentication) is a system which grants third-party websites limited access into user accounts for example your Twitter or Facebook accounts. It lets visitors interact within the site without requiring new account registration or releasing your username and password to third parties.

(Image Source: ogimogi)

In this guide I’d like to introduce the concept of OAuth and how it can apply to developers. There are a lot of technical details involved in the implementation of your own OAuth application. My example will be written in PHP using a Twitter library wrapper, but you could use nearly any popular programming API from Python to Ruby or Objective-C.

Even if the concept feels cryptic, attempt to digest as much as you can. It’s still a very mysterious technology, having just been drafted back in 2007. I certainly didn’t understand how to develop full OAuth Connections even after my first few tutorials but if you stick with it, you’ll catch on fast. Now first to kick things off, a small introduction!

What Problems Can We Solve?

If you consider how much more connected the Internet has become, it only makes sense that users will want to share information between multiple accounts from Facebook into Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, and now even into mobile apps such as Path or Instagram. The problem we face now is how to accomplish this in the most secure and simplest way possible. OAuth 1.0 is an attempt to solve this and numerous other problems, compared with older OpenID standards. Users are still entering their username/password into other third party websites just to connect into OpenID. This doesn’t make it any safer for the user. Under OAuth specs, the user never needs to store any personal account data into a third party database.

(Image Source: Martin Hassman)

With OAuth, the main account provider (e.g. Twitter, Facebook) will first redirect you (the user) to an authorization page. The user then logs into the main network, and then either accepts or denies a new connection into the third party website. The technology is painlessly easy and you can always unauthorize the connections from your account settings at any point. Notice that your password is never given to the 3rd party which makes this protocol a lot more safer than its counterpart.

How the Process Works

There are 3 parties to consider in a standard OAuth call:

• Service Provider – The main network you are trying to pull data from. They provide the API response such as your username, profile picture, website URL, and other stuff.
• Consumer – The 3rd party app looking to receive data. This would be the website or mobile app which makes the initial connection request, then also handles the return data after authorization.
• User – The person sitting behind the computer interacting with the websites which would be you!

The purpose of OAuth isn’t to provide a specific library for websites to use. It actually sets up the “rules” for building an open protocol API. So while we can all benefit from this technology it’s actually developers who will really find interest in this area. If you need more info check out the revised v1.0 edition released n April 2010.

Facing Security

The entire process ultimately requires 2 different keys along with an access token. The keys are provided by the root service after you register an application – these are known as your client and secret ID. The client ID is generally passed into the Authentication URL so the server can recognize your app.

The secret ID is held in your code so the server can verify your app’s identity. Similarly the remote server will match up your secret ID with their own so you don’t mistakenly send a twitter request to Facebook’s API, or vice versa. If the user authorizes the connection and all keys match up, then they are returned to your website with a long code of random numbers and letters.

This code is used to generate a new access token. These behave similar to a session variable which you can store in a cookie to keep the user logged into your website. The only difference is that many services will send back an Access Token and Secret Access Token. You likely need both of these to pull any data from the server. An example could be requesting the user’s profile photo to save a copy on your own website.

Example Library for Twitter OAuth

Developers aren’t often likely to start from scratch so why not look into a previously-built library? This will save us our time, and from headaches, when working with PHP. Let’s look into building a really simple example on top of the Twitter API.

I highly recommend Twitter Async by Jaisen Mathai on GitHub. It works perfectly and even provides some really straightforward example codes that we can look at. You can download the .zip for now, but before we look into the code we need to register and get our app IDs from Twitter.

Registering a New Application

The Twitter Dev Center is a great resource for those just getting started on the API. It has been written and rewritten many times over the course of a few years. The page we want is https://dev.twitter.com/apps/new. It will ask you to log in at first, then you need to enter some credentials for a new application.

The App name and description are displayed when the user goes to authorize with Twitter. Your Web URL is also important to distinguish the third party address. It would be easier to work with a live domain although you can use localhost for testing, but I do not enourage this method. It’s just as easy to sign up for a free web host and run your scripts from there.

The Callback URL is stated as the final destination after your visitors either accept or deny the authorization. It’s your job as the programmer to read the response from Twitter and output a message accordingly. In the Async library we’ve already got some credentials in place, but they won’t work since the callback URL is specified to an external blog. If you’re interested in building a fully-connected OAuth web app I’ve included some detailed tutorials below.

Check Out the Code

If you are using a remote web host you may want to unzip the Async libraries and upload them to a new directory. Otherwise you can just check out the source code. It’s likely that we won’t be able to pull a new connection anyways. But hands-on experience with uploading and editing source code is always a learning process.

In the root directory you’ll find a script named simpleTest.php. Inside is a whole lot of PHP codes related to the OAuth libraries included. I won’t be able to put it all together for you, but we should look at an important code block to pinpoint notable details.

<?php  include 'EpiCurl.php';  include 'EpiOAuth.php';  include 'EpiTwitter.php';  $consumer_key = 'jdv3dsDhsYuJRlZFSuI2fg';  $consumer_secret = 'NNXamBsBFG8PnEmacYs0uCtbtsz346OJSod7Dl94';  $token = '25451974-uakRmTZxrSFQbkDjZnTAsxDO5o9kacz2LT6kqEHA';  $secret= 'CuQPQ1WqIdSJDTIkDUlXjHpbcRao9lcKhQHflqGE8';  $twitterObj = new EpiTwitter($consumer_key, $consumer_secret, $token, $secret);  $twitterObjUnAuth = new EpiTwitter($consumer_key, $consumer_secret);  ?>  

There are 4 very important variables for the consumer key and secret ID, along with the token and secret token ID. Not all API services will require this set of 4, but it is proper OAuth protocol. The EpiTwitter class requires all 4 values as parameters and generates the connection URL into Twitter.

https://api.twitter.com/oauth/authorize?oauth_token=TOKEN_ID_HERE

With this new dynamic URL you can create a login button for your users. This would direct them first to a secure Twitter API page where the user either accepts or denies your connection. Regardless of their choice the user then gets re-directed to your app callback URL. The entire open protocol has a very clean perspective which allows for rapid development, especially with libraries available in practically every language.

Related Links

• hueniverse oauth 1.0 guide
• Gentle Introduction to OAuth
• OAuth FAQ
• Facebook Authentication Dev Guide
• Simple Twitter OAuth Signin
• Using OAuth with Twitter in Cocoa Objective-C
• Consuming OAuth Intelligently in Rails

Conclusion

Hopefully this introduction into OAuth has got you interested in building apps over the protocol. Many developers have been striving for just such a solution, and OAuth 2.0 may be the future of interconnected social networks. I already use over two dozen connections into my Twitter account and have been really impressed with the developer’s documentation!

Clearly there is a lot to say on this topic. It’s not something you may be able to fully process in one sitting. Browse around the net for more OAuth solutions and let us know your thoughts in the discussion area below.

No related posts.

The Facebook ‘Like’ button is a powerful tool you can utilize to increase the fan base for your brands, companies and products. As part of the marketing strategy for many pages, this Like button is used as a ‘gate’ before any potential customer gets to see detailed info or perform downloads.

There are actually three actions you can program your ‘Like’ button to do. It can be a gate for redirects, to allow downloads as well as to reveal a page. And we are going to show you how in this tutorial.

Recommended Reading: How to Display/Update "Facebook Likes" Using Node.js

#1. Creating A Like Gate

You can use the ‘Like’ button as a ‘gate’ that will hide your original content from public view. Readers who want access to the full content available on the Facebook page will have to ‘Like’ the page first. Technically, this is the simplest way to gain more ‘Likes’.

Creating a ‘Like gate’ with Woobox

With Woobox, you can simply install the app to your Facebook Page and start creating tabs with a Like gate, for free.

1. To start, go to the Woobox website and click on the signup button.

   

2. Sign up with your Facebook account.

   

3. You will be redirected to the page where you can start installing your Woobox application. On the left menu, click on HTML Fangates.

   

4. If you already have tabs created with Woobox, it will be listed here. To create a new tab with a Like gate, click on the link at the bottom that says Add a new HTML Fangate Tab.

   

5. You will get a notification saying your new tab has been created. Now you can edit your tab here or directly from your Facebook Page.

   

6. To make it more visual for you, go to your Facebook Page where the tab has been added to, look for the new tab and click on it.

   

7. Click on the ‘Authorize’ button to proceed.

   

8. Once authorized, you will be redirected to the Tab’s content settings page. Scroll down and you will see the main section where you can set your page content under ‘Page Source’ and then set the ‘Non-Fan Page Source’.

   

   The ‘Non-Fan Page Source’ will act as the Like gate. An example of a Like gate you can use is as shown.

   

   The ‘Page Source’ is what your fan will see. Once they ‘Like’ your page, the content you set on ‘Page Source’ will appear.

   

9. When you have completed the form with the relevant content, don’t forget to scroll down and click on the Save Settings button.

   

10. Once saved, your Tab is now ready with a Like gate! That’s how easy it is, now click the View Tab button to see your final result.

    

11. In this page, as the admin you will see ‘Admin Tab Options’ at the top of your content. Click the View as Non-Fan to preview your content for your non-Fans.

    

#2. Creating ‘Like to download’ action

‘Like to download’ also function like a ‘gate’ before ‘download’ can be done. Say, if you have a freebies to give your website visitors, you can require them to click on the like button before they can perform any download. The link to download will only appear after a person click ‘Like’.

To do this, go to the Facebook Like To Download official page, scroll down and fill up the simple form with your Facebook Page address or target website address, then provide the link to download, set the width and preferred color and then hit the button ‘Create Your Like Gate Now’.

After this, you will get to see the preview together with the working code. Copy the embed code and paste it to your website or blog.

After adding the code to your site, your visitor will see the instruction to ‘Like’ before the download can be done, and once they click Like, the download button will appear.

#3. Creating ‘Like to redirect’ (to a different page)

‘Like to redirect’ will help you redirect your visitors to an external page or website after they click the ‘Like’ button on your Facebook tab page. Now, instead of preparing a landing page or ‘page source’, you can actually redirect the new fans to your own website’s landing page after they click the ‘Like’ button.

creating ‘Like to Redirect’ with Woobox

To redirect with Woobox, follow the first part of this article (Creating a ‘Like Gate’ with Woobox) until ‘Step 8‘ and under ‘Page Source‘, select ‘Redirect‘. Fill up the external page with the URL you want to redirect your fans to.

Don’t forget to set the ‘Non-fan page source’ too, and save the settings. Now, whenever a person clicks on the ‘Like’ button from this tab page, they will be redirected away from Facebook, to the URL you specified.

Note: Facebook changes most of its features all the time, and if previously you can also redirect users who like your page directly from your website, it seems difficult to achieve that when Facebook additionally pops up the ‘share’ option whenever you click ‘Like’.

Conclusion

With these tricks, you should be able to gain more ‘Likes’ on Facebook and increase your fan base. Ask them to like before download as a token of appreciation, or redirect them to a special offer page after they click Like. If you have a Like gate active, always redirect your potential fan to the gated tabs for higher chances to gain more Likes.

What’s your comment? Do you think Like-gating still works?

Related posts:

1. Enable Facebook Like Button In Google Search Result Page [Quicktip]
2. 5 Must-Know Facebook Timeline Tips/Tricks
3. 10 Tips & Tricks For Your Business’s Facebook Fan Page
4. How to Customize the ‘Via’ status on your Facebook Posts