What Pinterest's New 'Guided Search' Feature Actually Does

Pinterest has announced a brand new search feature that prizes discovery of the unforeseen over nailing down specific information, “ leaving a little room for serendipity.”

At the same time that it released the Guided Search feature, Pinterest also disclosed that its reach now spans 750 million boards and 30 billion total pins. That's up 50 percent over the past six months, per TechCrunch.

Guided Search works loosely akin to a Choose Your Own Adventure novel, in which a simple keyword search may lead to a plethora of related tangents. It is currently only available on mobile devices.

Related: Pinterest Ads Are Coming and They're Going to Be Expensive

Say a father and his daughters are deciding what to make for breakfast one morning and they type in “pancakes.” That, in turn, brings up a panel of additional options -- or “descriptive guides,” as the company calls them -- such as “Healthy,” “Fluffy,” “Recipe” and “Chocolate Chip.”

Eventually, in a stunning ad that depicts the search feature in action (below), one of the daughters settles on a pin for “Double Rainbow Pancakes” -- a colored stack decorated with fruit kabobs, which they later fry up and enjoy.

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The new feature will not affect the way Pinterest ranks search results, it said, “so you don’t need to make any changes to pins from your business.”

For Subscribers

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAmerican passenger drafted goodbye texts to her family as Flydubai plane plummeted

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCornell rape allegation pushes embattled New York prosecutor into national spotlight

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAbdul El-Sayed tries to woo MAHA voters as Democrats seek inroads with RFK’s supporters

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKratom-like substances are popping up in a typically benign supplement

FOR SUBSCRIBERSGOP super PAC increases its spending for Sen. Jon Husted in tough Ohio race

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRecords reveal tumultuous marriage between slain New York Times executive and wife

FOR SUBSCRIBERSFrom clean energy warrior to ‘wall of shame,’ James Talarico reverses on a fossil fuel money pledge

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCongressional staff planned official trip with luxury stops in Italy and France weeks before election

FOR SUBSCRIBERSA harrowing ordeal aboard an Israel-bound plane

FOR SUBSCRIBERSOpenAI CEO Sam Altman to skip congressional hearing on rogue AI agents

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKey DOJ lawyers departed Trump ‘grand conspiracy’ probe amid pressure to produce, source says

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump’s new AI chatbot often links to a site launched under Clinton 26 years ago

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAt MAHA summit, industry CEOs the movement once vilified take the stage

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThis Paralympian has two goals: Win medals and give away $500,000 to her teammates

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCornell rape allegation spotlights stringent New York state laws that have long drawn criticism

For businesses on Pinterest, the company advises doing upfront research on target consumers -- noting that people’s interest generally fall into five categories: passions, vocations, hobbies, projects and preference changes.

“Ask yourself: what kinds of things is my customer into? Think about what content your business already has that you could add to Pinterest so people can explore their interests further.”

Related: How You Can Get More Pinterest Followers (Infographic)