Pinterest introduces Instagram like Explore tab

If you are an avid Pinterest buff, you must be familiar with how easy it is to get lost among the billions of images, which the company has just found an answer to, with the newly unveiled Explore tab.

Within the Explore tab, signified by the magnifying glass icon, users are greeted with a snapshot of what’s trending on Pinterest, which is curated by Pinterest to offer the best possible visual summary of Pinterest proceedings.

A list of broad topics allows users to easily browse through the best pictures and videos under the particular category, and can customize the categories they wish to see regularly.

The categories shall be as follows;

User behaviour will also be applied to offer personalized recommendations, but wait there’s more!

Pinterest is working with a number of brands and publishers to easily broadcast all the interesting pictures and videos on offer (Yes! Just like Snapchat). Tastemade, HGTV, GQ, Refinery29, Harper’s Bazaar, National Geographic, BuzzFeed, and Brit+Co are the brands Pinterest is working with and promise to bring more onboard soon.

Similar to Instagram, Pinterest is home to millions of visual storytellers from all over the world, albeit with an added functionality, that of buying articles on the platform itself.

Instagram too, experimented with the Buy Button on their own platform but that is a story for another day.

Social media platforms regularly borrow or draw inspiration from each other, and since Instagram was moving into Pinterest territory, it was only a matter of time before the company had to step up their game to keep users interested.

Now, every social media platform has a core base of loyal users which would never make the switch unless forced to. But in the battle for newer users, companies have to stay relevant, user friendly, innovative and fresh.

Pinterest is home to 150 million users, whereas fresh competitor Instagram boasts of more than 500 million users which is a massive difference, but there is one stark distinctive factor that separates the two photo sharing platforms.

Instagram’s user base is made up of millennials and other overtly social users who share personal portraits and other such pictures with their friends or followers, whereas Pinterest is populated with high quality pictures, DIY tips in the form of pictures and videos, which are not much social in nature.

With Explore, new users would find it easier to browse through billions of images on Pinterest, and may eventually get the hang of Buyable Pins and whatnot.

Pinterest should expect a lot of new users to join, or the ones who found it too confusing to go back, may after all return delightfully. Pinterest will be rolling out Explore in the next few days, so you might want to check back if you aren’t seeing the update just yet.

Hopefully, Pinterest will be able to hold their own against Mark Zuckerberg’s ambitious acquisition, much like Snapchat has been. We are witnessing David and Goliath unfold much too often in the social media ecosystem.