Something of Pinterest?

Any Pinner will tell you they’ve spent many a Sunday evening wondering where the last 4 hours have gone, only to realise they’ve planned the renovation of every room in the house and pinned enough mouth-watering recipes to last them a life time. That’s the addictive nature of Pinterest – it has everything your heart desires at the end of your fingertips.

Well my fellow Pinners, I have news for you! Pinterest is gradually rolling out a visual search tool that will enable us to select an item from an image and search for objects that are visually similar. See that vintage floor lamp you see in the corner of the well-furnished lounge? Now you can use the visual search tool to find similar lamps that you can browse through and buy at the click of a button.

[Example from Pinterest]

How very pinteresting…

Now the question is – will this save us time or is it another addictive feature of an already compelling network? The visual search is clearly a great money-making tool for Pinterest and its users, and could potentially save us a lot of time. At the moment we search using keywords that we hope will produce the results we’re looking for, but of course that relies on human input from both ends. So, assuming that the results will be more accurate, will this cut out browsing time from our busy schedules? Or will we be further enticed to use the app more often to inspire a bigger chunk of our online purchases?

Fasten your purse strings!

Either way, having the ability to do a visual search on Pinterest is going to change the way we use the app and the website, and I predict a bigger dent in my bank balance in the coming months!