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Pinterest hires Google computer vision expert to sort your Pins
Pinterest is very committed to improving its search technology through AI -- so committed, in fact, that it just hired one of the foremost experts in the field. The social network has announced that it's recruiting Chuck Rosenberg, Google's AI vision research leader, to become its Head of Computer Vision. He spent just shy of 14 years at Google and was responsible for a number of major AI-related efforts, including the first large deployment of an image-focused deep learning network.
Pinterest makes it easy to share pins on Facebook Messenger
Has it been while since you've chatted with a Messenger bot? If you use Pinterest religiously, you might be tempted pick up the habit again. The visual discovery social network has launched a Messenger bot and a chat extension that make it easier to share pins with friends. With the chat extension, you'll be able to share pins from Pinterest within the Messenger app itself. And if you receive a pin from your friend, you'll be able to expand that pin to show the full image and browse related pins without even leaving the chat application. Pinterest says it built the extension to load fast, since it expects people to use it on the go.
Twitter and others warn FCC of 'disastrous' net neutrality reversal
Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit and Airbnb were among 200 firms that signed a letter warning FCC Chairman Ajit Pai not to roll back net neutrality, according to Broadcasting & Cable. Dated on Cyber Monday (November 27th), the letter notes that record Black Friday sales are "a testament to the power of the free and open internet to encourage entrepreneurship, drive innovation, make our lives easier, and to support a healthy economy."
Pinterest's take on QR codes will unlock curated boards
Pinterest has really ramped up its visual search efforts lately. In February, it launched Lens, a tool that lets you shop for an item just by taking a photo of it. It incorporated that same tech into browser extensions, enabled the detection of multiple items, let you create and shop for outfits and, more recently, made those visual search tools more prominent in the app. Today, Pinterest is boosting visual search once more with an array of updates -- which include custom Pinterest codes, a new way of shopping for outfits and more shoppable pins -- just in time for the holiday shopping season.
Pinterest boards can be split into sections
Pinterest has made it easier to keep on top of all your pins with a new board sections feature, which lets you create multiple sections within a single board. So if you're big into home inspo, you could have a single "living room" board with separate sections for furniture, artwork and lighting, rather than lumping them all in together, or having to keep track of multiple boards.
Instagram's Pinterest-like bookmarked posts hit the web
You've had the option to bookmark Instagram posts for nearly a year, but what good is that if you can't revisit those favorites on your PC? Now you can... with a little luck. Instagram has started testing the ability to view your bookmarks on the web. If you're part of the trial group (a few Engadget writers are), you can swing by your profile and click a Saved tab to revisit your favorites.
Instagram shopping is getting a big boost from Shopify
Shopify is providing its users with another way to sell their goods. Throughout the year, it has been testing an Instagram shopping feature, but it's now opening the tool up to thousands of additional merchants just in time for the holiday shopping season, TechCrunch reports. The feature lets sellers tag items in an Instagram post that are available for purchase and viewers can then click those tags to buy the items without having to leave Instagram.
Zooming photos is finally a thing for image-driven Pinterest
Pinterest is adding a couple of new features to help you get more use out of it. First, the app now (finally) allows you to pinch to zoom in on Pins, which it said in a blog post is one of its most requested features. Not surprising as it has been building itself to be a visual search engine and the lack of zooming ability has been noticeably absent. It has also tweaked its visual search tool, which lets you select an object within a Pin and find items that are similar. The visual search button has been moved and made to be more noticeable. Pinterest says that in tests, 70 percent more people used the tool after the changes were made. Finally, those using visual searches through Chrome don't need to have a Pinterest account to do so any longer.
Google adds a dash of Pinterest with recipes and shopping
Google Image Search hasn't really been well-suited to competing with Pinterest. You could save images for later viewing or visit the source page, but you couldn't always tell what you would get when you would click through. That's changing today. Google has updated Image Search to not only identify when an image points to a special content, but to display some of that content with a single glance. If you look for food, for instance, you may see "recipe" badges and even the recipe itself once you tap the picture. It'll also highlight purchasable products, animated GIFs and videos.
Pinterest wants you to think of it as a visual search engine
Pinterest might have started out as a social network, but it's quickly moving into search engine territory. This week, the site announced that it's moving the "Search" and "Lens" features to a more prominent space in its mobile apps.
Amazon Spark curates an Instagram-like shopping feed
If you've ever found yourself wishing that Amazon would just advertise its products in a social media-like format that looks and functions a lot like Instagram with maybe a touch of Pinterest, then oh boy are you in luck. Amazon just launched a new feature called Spark and it's exactly that.
Pinterest enables two-factor authentication for all users
It seems as though online security is at the top of everyone's priority list these days, and now Pinterest is stepping up to the plate. The social network is introducing a slate of new features aimed at protecting users' accounts.
Pinterest Lens makes fab outfits from clothes you already own
Putting outfits together is fun, but it could also be irritating to do every single day. Something like Cher's virtual wardrobe in Clueless could help -- or Pinterest Lens, which the social network has just upgraded to be a much better stylist. The company says it made major improvements to give its image recognition tool the capability to make outfits based on specific pieces of clothing or accessories you already own. If you have a denim jacket that you don't know what to do with, for instance, you can upload a picture and look at the sample OOTDs Lens shows you. The tool can also recommend new clothes to buy based on what you usually wear.
Pinterest Lens finds recipes based on your weekend brunch pics
Pinterest announced its image recognition tool back in February, but the company has already added a number of improvements since then. Today, the company is revealing the latest addition to Lens: full dish recognition. This means that when you snap a pic of your plate with the Pinterest app, the software will find full recipes for complete dishes rather than just options based on single ingredients. This update to Lens isn't all the company is doing for aspiring cooks though.
Pinterest's app can identify multiple items in one photo
Last year, Pinterest started encouraging its users to buy things with just a photo. Last February it gave everyone in the US access to its new Lens beta, which lets you search for pins of cool things with a snapshot. Today, Pinterest continues to improve its Lens feature with a new update that gives you the power to "lens" more than one thing at a time, snap QR codes and use app shortcuts on the iPhone, along with improvements to Lens' analysis.
Pinterest doesn't want you to see it as a social network
Believe it or not, Pinterest has never really advertised itself in the US -- remarkable for an internet giant with over 150 million users and enough clout that it can buy well-known services like Instapaper. However, you're about to see a lot more of it soon. The collection-themed company tells Bloomberg that it's going to run its first US ad campaign this summer. And unlike some ad runs, this will be as much about defining what Pinterest doesn't do as what it does.
Pinterest fixes its broken visual search tool for Chrome
Pinterest thought it launched something cool when it added visual search to its Chrome browser in March. It was supposed to be able to pinpoint specific items in an image, say a pair of sunglasses somebody's wearing in a photo, and find pins with similar objects. Unfortunately, it didn't always work as intended. It tended to capture screenshots of whole windows instead of specific objects you want to look up, and the website can't find objects within screenshots once they're already pinned on the site. To address the issue, Pinterest's extension now uses Javascript to look for the most interesting rectangle in a web page, which most likely contains the image you want to pin.
Instagram goes after Pinterest with saved post collections
Now that Instagram has overtaken Snapchat by emulating its features, the service is taking aim at another social networking heavyweight: Pinterest. Instagram is rolling out an update to its Android and iOS apps that introduces saved post collections. If you want ideas for your next vacation, you don't have to sift through your entire save history to find memorable travel shots. The feature lets you both add posts directly to new collections and organize those you've already preserved.
Pinterest gives everyone in the US access to its Lens tool
Pinterest's visual search tool isn't quite ready to hop out of beta yet, but the company is giving a lot more people the chance to try it out. The new feature, called Lens, is now open to all Android and iOS users in the US after a month-long trial with a small group of testers. Lens is pretty much the app's version of reverse image search, created so that you can easily shop for items on Pinterest by taking their photos.
Pinterest acquires Jelly, the startup from Twitter's Biz Stone
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone's startup Jelly has seen plenty of twists and turns since its 2013 introduction: it launched as a crowdsourced question-and-answer service, pivoted, and then pivoted back to its original concept in 2016. Now, however, it's poised for its biggest change yet: Pinterest has acquired Jelly. The terms of the deal aren't available, let alone the ultimate intentions, so it's unclear just what will happen. Will Jelly be independent, or melt into its new owner? Stone sees the deal as important to the "future of human powered search and discovery," though, so you know what his focus will be.
