For many, the first images of the Boston Marathon bombing — a cloud of dark smoke rising up over Boylston Street — came from Twitter or Instagram. The FBI received thousands of hastily snapped photos as they hunted the culprits. But does a camera in every pocket actually make snaring criminals any easier?

“The Internet is a force multiplier,” Lenny DePaul, the retired former chief inspector of the U.S. Marshals service, told NBCNews. “We can’t knock on one million doors, so the speed of the Internet is a major advantage when it comes to sharing information.”

The new age of social-media tips may seem worlds away from the seasoned cop on the beat — but it’s become another trove of potential clues to be used in all sorts of investigations.

Richard DesLauriers, who was the Boston FBI’s Special Agent in Charge at the time of the bombing, told NBCNews the popularity of personal gadgets and the Internet “means a wider range of people who have the ability to help law enforcement.”

DesLauriers, now a vice president for security at Penske Corp., made use of the new media landscape in the hunt for both the bombing suspects and gangster Whitey Bulger.

Immediately after the bombing DesLauriers specifically appealed to the public to send in photos, videos and any other information that might be relevant. As a result, 120 FBI agents sorted through more than 13,000 videos and 120,000 photos in the days after the bombing.

A video was indeed the “eureka moment” in the Boston Marathon bombing case, DesLauriers said. But it didn’t come from one of the thousands of video clips civilians sent in.

Instead, it was more traditional police work. Among other considerations, an eyewitness account from bombing victim Jeff Bauman — who lost both his legs to the sideline explosives — helped investigators comb through the hours of video. Bauman had locked eyes with the man who eventually became a prime suspect: Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Eventually, investigators found a clip from a surveillance video that they believed showed at least one suspect. […]