Smart image recognition systems can be incredibly powerful, and how interior designers and fashionistas can take advantage of them. Pinterest now has a tool that allows you to search not using words but images, which could make tracking down that artisanal teapot a little easier.
In the past, Pinterest has required you to know how to describe something in words, which — if you’ve ever spent much time using the site, you’ll know — can actually be rather challenging. Now, though, when you spot something in a Pinned image, you can tap the search tool in the corner and select a part of the image, and then search using it rather than words. The site lets you filter the results, too — so you can sift out the designer waste paper bins from the similar-looking farmyard buckets, say. Perhaps just as importantly, it will help you find out where you can buy the damn thing, too.
It’s a small addition, but it’s a neat one. And in many ways, this is the kind of site that always really needed visual search as a tool. The update is now live on the site and in the updated app, but in the meantime, here are 10 tricks to help you use Pinterest even better.