Eventually, Pinterest would love to help users buy the products they find see online but don’t know where to buy them.īut that won’t be the main priority for the new browser tool, at least not right away. The “visual search” technology is not new - you could already use it, but only on Pinterest’s website. As co-founder Evan Sharp explained it at a press event last month: “You shouldn’t have to put your thoughts into words to find great ideas.” The idea here is that Pinterest wants to be the search engine for images, and that includes images you see on other websites or even images you come across in the real world.

If you click on one of the search results, you’ll then be taken to Pinterest. The new tool lets you select an item in any photograph online, and ask Pinterest to surface similar items using its image recognition software.įor example: If you see an image of sunglasses you like on, you could use the extension to browse similar glasses from Pinterest without ever leaving Nordstrom’s website. The new feature is part of an update the company launched Tuesday to its Chrome extension, the browser tool that lets you save images you see online back to Pinterest as you surf the web. If you find an item you like online - an article of clothing or a piece of furniture, for example - you’ll now be able to find that item, or similar items, on Pinterest without ever visiting Pinterest’s website.

Pinterest reverse image search