At last, the photo-sharing site Pinterest has fulfilled one of the most requested features made by users: the ability to search for their own pins. The update was released for mobile devices last night and has been incorporated into the website as well.
The expanded search helps prolific pinners, but it's not as thorough as it could be. With the update, you can search Pinterest using a keyword like "cake." Once the results are displayed, you can then choose to see only those items pinned by you. But that's as far as search goes. You'll still have to scan through your pins for that amazing chocolate cake recipe. The ability to drill down to narrow results would be helpful, especially to those who pin thousands of similar items.
The new Pinterest search feature can only be as good as your descriptions. If you didn't bother adding a description that includes what is shown in the pin, the photo won't turn up in a search. A description that simply reads "Love, love, love!" won't do you much good; those amazing Jimmy Choos will not come up in a search for the designer or for shoes.
One Pinterest user had an alternative solution. "I would love it even more if you made it possible for us to add tags to our pins, so we do not have to use the description field for this. I like to keep the description field short and precise," Queen Yvonne 77 commented on the Pinterest blog.
Others took the opportunity to respond to Pinterest's announcement and ask for additional features, such as being able to rearrange pins within a board. Currently, Pinterest allows users to choose the pin they'd like to feature as a cover photo for the board, but no other manipulation of pins is possible — the order in which you post pins is the order they'll appear on the board.
But there may be hope. After Pinterest announced a user test of its planned redesign in February, it said it would not add any of the suggested features to the update, such as searching for your own pins and reordering pins. However, the new search expansion could be just the start of more good things to come.
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