Pinterest Introduces Related Pins for Better Discovery

Pinterest is adding ‘related pins’ to users’ home feeds, in a bid to improve its discovery features and pin-based recommendations.

The pinboard-style photo-sharing website realizes that it is currently difficult for some users to find pins that they like, so it hopes the new related pins will sort out the problem.

“One of the things we hear from pinners (like you!) is that it sometimes takes some work to find fresh pins you love,” the company said in its blog. “To make things a little easier, we’re going to start delivering a selection of recommendations called ‘related pins’ right to your home feed.”

The new related pins will be similar or linked to posts that users have already saved or liked across Pinterest. The pins will also come with a thumb up and thumb down feature so pinners can give feedback and improve the relevance of the pins over time. If the user is unhappy with some of the recommendations, they can rate the pin by hitting the info icon. Pinterest will then remove this pin from the feed and will avoid showing similar content in the future.

Pinterest says that the new related pins are different from promoted pins, which are essentially promtional ads for businesses.