Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Pinterest Unveils New Image Search
www.fastcompany.com: Pinterest is making big changes to its search functionality that involve machine learning and image recognition techniques. In a blog post, engineering manager Kevin Jing unveiled what the company calls their "Crazy-fun new visual search tool," which lets users of the company’s mobile app search for aspects of individual pictures.
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Being a Pinterest lover, I immediately had to read this article talking about the search engine tool on the website having a new feature. This feature allows the audience to take an image and search detailed parts of the image by clicking on a specific part such as a piece of furniture or article of clothing. I know they have this feature already on websites, but they only have a set number of images you can choose from. Pinterest is allowing their audience to pick from any picture they would like. I wonder how they would pull that off. For example, if you were to click on a hand bag in the picture, what would the website be programmed to focus on? I'm guessing they would focus on color and shape, but what about texture? pattern? Length of handle? If this website can pull off this search tool then I can't wait to see how it will actually work.
As with probably most of the people who will comment on this article, another Pinterest lover here! Pinterest is one of my favorite sites and I can get lost on it for hours. Also, for the amount of visual work we do, it is really useful for references, how-to’s, and inspiration. The costume designer at my local theater back home had a different Pinterest board for every show she worked on. When reading this article I have to wonder how this image search will work. I have never liked the reverse image search feature on Google, because it never seems to bring up what I am actually looking for when searching with that image. I am hoping that Pinterest will recognize the wide variety of people and purposes that their site is used for and use different criteria for different searches. For example, using the text to find other tutorials on the same topic when searching with a how-to image, visual similarity for paintings or drawings, or brands and style when searching with the image of a product. Either way I am excited to find the time to try out this new feature.
As someone my friends and family have often described as "living in my own world," never have I found a digital medium which so closely resembles what my thought process looks like as Pinterest does. In high school my design teachers often referred to the process of image research as "squirreling", in which the designer - the squirrel - goes in search of food, finds a nut, and then is led to the next nut and the next until finally it can go no further and must store its loot. This is how I think, and Pinterest makes communicating that thought process easy. It saddens me to meet people who do not think of Pinterest as a respectable place for research, as to me it is an invaluable tool. Why is it that we as designers and artists get so wrapped up in the tools we use? Does ingenuity and resourcefulness count for nothing? One would not frown at Picasso for using crayons. Why must we force those who cannot afford expensive tools to use them in order to be valid? Pinterest is just another way of bringing order and method to the way we see the world around us, and as someone who has already made use of this new feature I think it can only continue to assist how we express our creative thought. Bravo, Pinterest.
Pintrest, one of my guilty pleasures, I hate to love it. Falling down a Pintrest hole is a very real thing, and happens more frequently than I will admit. It already takes your pins and amidst all the boards you follow, it adds Pins it thinks you may like. I have to say it dose a great job, I frequently discover new images, and recipes that i’m not sure I would have found it. This new search tool is really incredible, and I think its really going to help more pointed searches. I also use Pintrest when doing basic images searches for classes and I think this new search tool may help narrow broad searches a little faster. I can’t wait until they update the feature and I can start to use it. If only I had enough time to really use it, or maybe i just need to see if updating the app makes it appear.
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