Pinterest is positioning itself as more than just a place to pin cool pictures. It also wants to help you find ideas for things. It’s not as though people haven’t already been using it for that purpose (especially for recipes), but now the company trying to make it easier.
Pinterest announced the launch of Guided Search to help people find good ideas for things like where to plan vacations, what to have for dinner, etc.
“It’s made for exploring, whether you know exactly what you want, or you’re just starting to look around,” explains Hui Xu, head of the discovery team at Pinterest. “There are more than 750 million boards with 30 billion Pins hand-picked by travelers, foodies, and other Pinners, so the right idea is just a few taps away.”
“Now when you search for something (road trips, running, summer BBQ), descriptive guides will help you sift through all the good ideas from other Pinners,” Xu adds. “Scroll through the guides and tap any that look interesting to steer your search in the right direction. Say you’re looking for plants to green up your apartment, guides help you get more specific—indoors, shade, succulents—so you can hone in on the ones that suit your space. Or when it’s time for your next haircut, search by specific styles—for redheads, curly hair, layers—to find your next look.”
As we noted in January, Pinterest is getting more serious about search. That was when it launched an improved recipe search experience, enabling users to search for ingredients (like whatever is in their refrigerators), to find collections of relevant recipes. It also includes filters like vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, paleo, etc.
The company considered that feature part of its “more useful Pins” initiative, which uses structured data (like ingredients, cook time, and servings) to display more info right on the pin.
As Pinterest continues to make its search features more useful, it’s going to be even more of a go-to search destination for specific verticals. It will be interesting to see how many verticals it can make as useful as its recipe search.
Guided Search is rolling out in English on iPhone and Android, and will hit the web and everywhere else “soon,” according to the company.
Image via Pinterest