Pinterest is introducing a new Guided Search feature that it claims has a leg up on the Bings, Googles, and Yahoos of the world. It requires the downloading of a new app and will be available only in English during the initial rollout.
Emboldened by the 750 million message boards and 30 billion pins it encompasses, Pinterest decided to transform its universe into a self-contained search engine that can let people “explore endless possibilities…even if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for,” read a release introducing the service.
One way Pinterest figures to accomplish this is to link searchers with pins posted by people on that topic, but broken down by sub-topics. For instance, enter “plants” and one is taken to a page of pins with a toolbar specifying “outdoor,” “garden,” “decorating,” and “low maintenance.”
“Search engines are great for answering specific questions—the weather in San Francisco or the capital of Peru—but [Guided Search] can help with the questions that have more than one right answer,” maintained Head of Pinterest’s Discovery Team Hui Xu in a blog published yesterday.
The company also makes a claim for improved ease of use on mobile devices for Guided Search, which offers “less typing and more tapping.”
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