Pinterest Launches 'Tried It' Button: Gaffa Tape Boom Anticipated

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'People don’t just discover great ideas on Pinterest, they act on what they find.' So reads the Pinterest business blog post released Thursday to announce the launch of the platform's new 'Tried' feature. The basic premise is pretty simple: if you came across a recipe for brownies or a cool idea for a Christmas present in your past scrolling, you'd probably have had to guesstimate how good it really was based on the comment section and the number of likes and re-pins it received; or leave the site and look for reviews online if it's a specific product. But now there's a new checkmark on the block which makes it easier for users to learn about a pin: a new button called 'Tried It', which, when pressed, allows you to write a review and which adds the pin to a new 'Tried' board in your profile. Although the new feature seems handy for users, it's worth considering how it will affect the data-gathering activities of big social media. 

In terms of the user experience, it gives people who upload content to the site another way to interact with content. Rather than just giving something a Re-Pin or Like, hitting the 'Tried it' button means greater scope to write a specific type of comment: a review, instead of your average two cents. What's more, it will probably give reviewers and bloggers more scope to boost their online presence: they can now post mini-reviews on Pinterest, and have a dedicated review board on their profiles, which could perhaps act as go-betweens for fuller ones on their own platforms.

However, aside from the user experience, perhaps the most important implication of this feature's roll-out is, as Katherine Jugler explained in an official blog post, the new potential it offers businesses to 'grow and develop.' There are various reasons for this.

For one, allowing customers to tell businesses what they're buying, using and doing counts as more precise, extensive feedback than would otherwise be available from the existing checkmarks. It also happens directly through the site, which means customers can review products and services from the comfort of their social sphere, rather than having to approach the business' website itself. 

But, more significantly, this will probably serve as another way in which businesses can gather data and build profiles on social media users: working out what we think, do, and like through information available online - made easier now by a new section on our profile pages explicitly detailing what things we've used, what we thought of them, and whether we're a "creative type" who suggests how certain products could have been improved. Oh, and it's all in one place. 

Pinterest

So, maybe the 'Tried' checkmark means power to the people; or perhaps it signals the continued encroachment of corporate capital into our lives? Maybe both. Or neither! Leave a comment below and have your say, dear reader... 

James Stannard

James has a Bachelor’s degree in History and wrote his dissertation on beef and protest. His heroes list ranges from Adele to Noam Chomsky: inspirations he’ll be invoking next year when he begins a Master’s degree in London. Follow him @Songbird_James

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