When we search for something on Bing or Google, we’re relying on algorithms to find what we’re looking for. When we scroll through blogs or Pinterest boards, we’re relying on hand curation — the judgement of a real person — to find what we’re looking for. Both are valuable in their own right, but what if we could combine the two into one hybrid search?
Bing is setting out to do exactly that by pulling pinboards directly into image search results. When you search for images on Bing, related Pinterest boards will appear right next to regular image search results. As you can see below, an image search for the term “pumpkins” pulls in images from the web in the main results section, while the righthand column pulls in boards directly from Pinterest.
What does this mean for brand marketers?
As a marketer, by now you’re well aware of the search benefits of a solid Google Plus strategy. Your brand’s Google Plus posts not only influence search results, but oftentimes these posts are actually displayed on the results page.
Thanks to Bing’s image search updates, the same will soon be true for Pinterest. Since pinboards will be pulled into the search engine results page, having quality, relevant content on Pinterest is now more important than ever. Of course, whether or not your brand participates on Google Plus or Pinterest depends entirely on where your audience spends time online — so don’t jump to any conclusions. Just be sure to factor search implications into your social strategy decisions.
