Pinterest Unveils New Visual Search Function

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Pinterest is adding a cool new search feature today that lets you find items in a pin you love but don't have the words to describe. What that means is it's a visual search tool that allows Pinterest users to zoom in on anything in a Pinned photo and find similar items on Pinterest.

For example, if you love a coffee table in someone's living room or a bag in a street style pic, you can tap the search tool in the corner, select the lamp or bag, and then Pinterest will pull up visually similar pins. You can also filter your visual search results by topic. Pinterest has a gif on their blog that shows you exactly how this is supposed to work.

"There are dozens of interesting items within a Pin’s image; we want to give Pinners a tool to learn more about these items. By specifying a part of the image you’re interested in using a cropping tool, we can recommend visually similar results in real time," Pinterest software engineer Andrew Zhai wrote on Pinterest's engineering blog.

The new visual search tool will work for Pinners using iOS, Android, and the Web, according to Venturebeat. Pinterest has been on an innovation kick lately: the company launched its own collection of buyable pins last week called The Pinterest Shop, featuring "the best of Pinterest" as chosen by the company's employees.