Pinterest, the Internet’s favorite bulletin board for wedding ideas, recipes, and travel destinations, is trying to be your travel agent, too. The site rolled out a new feature: Place Pins, which allows users to add maps to their pinboards, making the boards even more visual and interactive. Many pinners already have boards displaying photos of places they would like to visit; the Place Pins feature allows them to see where in the world their pins are located.
On a smaller scale, the maps could be used to display locations of places you’d like to go for happy hour in your own city, or burger joints you’ve always wanted to try. Multiple users can work together on a single map, making planning that backpacking trip through Europe with your friend a collaborative effort.
Screengrab via Digital Trends
When a user pins a location on the map using Place Pins, the location’s address and phone number are then displayed, thanks to Pinterest’s partnership with Foursquare. The feature is also available on smartphones so you can easily access your maps through the Pinterest app.
Pinterest created this feature after watching the number of destination and travel pins increase to almost 1.5 million pinned per day and more than 750 million pinned on the entire site. The site hopes that the new Place Pins feature will “inspire you to go out and do the things you love,” said Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann. Premade boards by the Travel Channel and Four Seasons are also available to give you inspiration and ideas.
It will be interesting to see if and how businesses are affected by the Place Pins feature. As of now, Pinterest does not have on-site advertisers, but should businesses see an increase in sales because of the Place Pins feature, it could be an easy way for Pinterest to enter the advertising arena and increase its $3.8 billion value.
Image via Flickr