The second visual search technology, Pinterest Lens, is a feature within the Pinterest mobile app. According to Zhai, the technology “optimize on visual similarity, not just duplicates” in order to serve Pinners exact results as well as unexpected results that are similar in design. “There are dozens of interesting items within a Pin’s image we want to give Pinners a tool to learn more about these items,” said Andrew Zhai, Software Engineer at Pinterest. The first tool launched gives users the ability to zoom in on specific objects within a Pinterest Pin and find additional, visually-similar Pins. Pinterest has three primary visual search technologies. Here’s everything you need to know about Pinterest visual search so you can revamp your Pinterest Marketing for a more holistic search strategy. While a few different brands have launched their own visual search technologies, Pinterest is currently the industry leader.

The search engine then applies artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to not just identify but understand the content of the image and populate a list of similar results. Unlike a text query, with visual search, the consumer initiates the search using a photo, screenshot, or other digital image.

You cross your fingers and hope that the description you’re typing into the search bar matches up to the way that other humans would describe it, too.įortunately, for consumers and retailers, alike, there’s a way around the limitations of text-based searching. So, when you want to look up something but you don’t know what to call it, you have to get creative.

However, neither Google nor Bing nor Pinterest can read your mind - at least not yet. Thanks to machine learning and big data, the accuracy and scope of search engines like Google, Bing, and Pinterest increase literally every day.

Pinterest image search