Pinterest gets targeted with 'Interests' pages

'Interests' will point users to subcategories of Pins that they are likely to want to see

In just a few short years, Pinterest has found itself in an enviable position in the social media world: it's found a way to get really close to knowing what people like to buy. 

Now its job is to continually refine its ability to drive people to the right product (Pins) at the right time - a time they're more likely to say, "I just must have it!"

So here comes Interests, a new page that will show users Pins that they are likely to be interested based on their previous activity. Pinterest announced that it was rolling a sneak preview of the feature on Monday.

Basically, what this does it break Pins down into smaller categories to make it easier for people to find what would be most interesting to them.

As Pinterest pointed out, before now there were "just a handful of broad categories" to pick from. So, if a user wanted to see Pins that related to, let's say, yard work, all they could do was go to Gardening, and try to find the right ones by looking through page after page.

Now, with this new feature, it will see that the user has collected Pins relating to yard work and can suggest a subcategory, such as vertical gardens, to them.

Or, someone who has a lot of travel Pins, it could start showing Pins from a specific place, such as Paris or New York City, that the user might want to visit. 

}We’re working hard to make Pinterest as relevant as possible for each person so it can be a place you can find and save all of the things you love, even if you didn’t even know you were looking for them," the company wrote. "This is just the beginning of bringing you more great experiences for your unique interests."

Interests will evolve and grow over time, as each user selects more Pins. The possibilities for categories, and subcategories, for Pins are endless. I wonder if the site will eventually begin challenging Netflix in that regard!

Advertising on Pinterest

The end result of this will no doubt be more targeted advertising.

The company announced this past September that it would begin showing ads in certain pins, called Promoted Pins, before beginning to roll them out in October. They appear alongside regular user Pins in search results and category feeds

So, if Pinterest can figure out that a user is not only into food, but really likes a specific type of food, that is obviously going to make it easier to know which ads to send to each user. Or, if it knows where you want to travel, it can start sending you deals on hotels and restaurants in that city.

Interests is just one of the things that Pinterest says it has lined up for the coming year, which will see a big ramp up in the company's monetization efforts.

(Image source: https://blog.pinterest.com)