Pinterest app updated with new ‘Guided Search’ feature

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Pinterest users may be interested to know that the photo-sharing site rolled out a major new feature to its mobile apps this morning. It’s called ‘Guided Search,’ and it comes via an App Store update, which brings both the iPhone and iPad client to version 3.6.

Guided Search is a tool made for exploring Pinterest when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for. So for example, if you enter a vague search time like ‘vacation,’ the tool will help you hone in on a category (i.e. camping, beach, etc) or specific location…

From Pinterest’s blog post:

Search engines are great for answering specific questions—the weather in San Francisco or the capital of Peru—but Pinterest can help with the questions that have more than one right answer. Where’s your next vacation or what’s for dinner tonight? With so many possibilities, you might not know the best one till you see it.

To help you find the best ideas, today we’re introducing Guided Search. It’s made for exploring, whether you know exactly what you want, or you’re just starting to look around. There are more than 750 million boards with 30 billion Pins hand-picked by travelers, foodies, and other Pinners, so the right idea is just a few taps away.

And here are a couple of promo clips:

The new feature was introduced last night at an event in the company’s San Francisco headquarters. It also announced that users have contributed more than 30 billion Pins since the service was founded—a number that has grown 50% in the past six months.

I’m not ashamed to say that I use Pinterest myself to find new recipes, window shop and get inspiration for future vacations, and I think Guided Search is really going to come in handy in these areas. If you’re interested, Pinterest is in the App Store for free.