The company just announced Guided Search, a new product that lets users filter their search by adding specific filters relevant to the original search term.
For example, searching for "hairstyles" will now provide filters like "wedding," "round face," or "short hair." Users searching for "burgers" may see filters like "vegan" or "easy recipes." The filters can be added or removed without leaving the search results page, and appear on mobile as visual tiles below the search bar.
The hope is that users will come across more relevant content, as well as discover new content they didn't even know they were looking for, says Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann.
Part of what made the expanded search necessary is the total number of pins on the platform. Silbermann says that Pinterest users have created 750 million boards, and pinned more than 30 billion items. Those numbers have grown 50% in the last six months alone, he says.
Guided Search isn't the only way the company is hoping to identify new content for its users. Pinterest also unveiled custom categories on Thursday, meaning users can now add pins to categories that didn't previously exist.
The title is slightly misleading; users cannot actually create their own categories. Rather, Pinterest is offering many more detailed categories to the company's existing list. These are rolling out to users slowly, according to a spokesperson, so not all pinners may see them immediately.
Pinterest will also surface relevant categories to users based on what they've recently tagged. For example, adding a pin to a category for a certain breed of dog may mean Pinterest recommends you check out pins from other dog-related categories.
This is a strategy the company has already been using, in part. Pinterest surfaces related pins whenever you view a pin, and more than 90% of content on the platform now includes related pin suggestions at the bottom of the screen, says Silbermann.
The advanced search and discovery tool is yet another obvious step toward eventually adding ecommerce capabilities to Pinterest. In order to make purchases on the platform, users will need to be able to search for the items they want and discover new items they hadn't even considered.
Silbermann did not elaborate on Pinterest's monetization strategy Thursday.
Guided Search is only available on Pinterest's mobile apps for now, and users should be able to download an update on iOS and Android by Friday morning, according to a spokesperson. Guided Search will be rolled out to Pinterest's web version at a future date, but the company has no timetable for that.
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