• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, June 23, 2015

Instagram has reimagined its search feature to become more of a source for images and videos during breaking news events. The announcement, made Tuesday, aims to give the site's community a view into the "world as it happens," from basketball games to plans that will phase out confederate flag symbols in U.S. states. It will also provide more images of local and community events, such as Fourth of July parades.

An Explore feature serves trends as they emerge in real-time, connecting searchers to events and conversations nearby or across the globe. The tool initially rolls out in the United States, but will work to bring it elsewhere. Trending Tags and trending Places allow users to experience moments like #fathersday from a variety of perspectives.

The improved Search tool enables users to find images by location, and now features a section for trending places and hashtags. The trending places feature will serve local and national trends, so topics will differ based on location for any of the more than 70 photos and videos posted daily to Instagram, acquired by Facebook in 2012.

There is a push for social sites to become the go-to place for people to search and find images from community sources and citizen reporting -- not just those taken by news agencies like Reuters or Bloomberg.

Google introduced News Lab earlier this week, which builds on a series of Google's announcements to support content. And then there's YouTube Wire, which curates real-time eyewitness clips of current events. Newswire features global and regional feeds that serve the most relevant videos worldwide. The service launched in partnership with Storyful, a social news agency.