Pinterest has added new search results for men that highlight more masculine content, as the social scrapbooking site looks to broaden its appeal away from its largely female audience. The new feature, called Guided Search, customises search results according to users’ interests. Due to the high proportion of women on the site, previous search results […]
Pinterest has added new search results for men that highlight more masculine content, as the social scrapbooking site looks to broaden its appeal away from its largely female audience.
The new feature, called Guided Search, customises search results according to users’ interests.
Due to the high proportion of women on the site, previous search results would often throw up images and stories that were tailored towards them.
For example, before when you searched Pinterest for “watches,” results would include mostly women’s timepieces. But now, men will see Pins and guides inspired by what other males have Pinned.
Roughly 71% of the site’s users are women, according to comScore data, though men is the site’s fastest-growing demographic and the ratio is less skewed in emerging markets.
“If you do a lot of searching on Pinterest, you may already have noticed the results you’re seeing are far better than ever,’ Pinterest engineer Pei Yin wrote in blog post announcing the new feature.
“For example, say you’re looking for a new watch. Before when you searched Pinterest for ‘watches,” your results would include mostly women’s timepieces. But now, men will see Pins and guides inspired by what other guys have Pinned, and everybody’s results should feel a lot closer to what they’re looking for.”
Users may “fine-tune” their searches by indicating their preferred gender in the settings, according to Yin.
“These customized search results appear for thousands of different search terms. The next time you’re on Pinterest, try searching for hair, shoes or health and see for yourself how spot on your results are,” Yin said.
Pinterest introduced Guided Search in 2014 “to help [users] find the best ideas” using “descriptive guides,” which users can scroll through. The feature was made available on mobile in April, with the Web version following later in July.
The new blog post by the website said it is set to introduce more improvements soon.
