Pinterest poaches another Google Image Search vet

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Pinterest poaches another Google Image Search vet

Pinterest, a social media service which allows users to pin images and videos to boards, has picked another important person from Google Image Search team.

The social media company has appointed Randy Keller as its head of search, Venture Beat reported.

A few months ago, Pinterest hired Li Fan, a former head of Google Image Search, as its head of engineering.

Keller was a senior staff engineer and lead for ranking and features for Google Image Search. He spent more than a decade at Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG). Keller was responsible for incorporating machine learning and computer vision signals into Google Image Search ranking, a Pinterest spokesperson told VentureBeat.

Keller led a team of 40 engineers at the search engine giant, shows his LinkedIn profile. At Pinterest, he will report Pinterest’s Head of Discovery Engineering Vanja Josifovski, who is also a former Googler.

“Pinterest is the most exciting opportunity in visual discovery today, and I look forward to contributing my expertise in image search quality and ranking to the team responsible for helping millions of people discover billions of ideas every day. Pinterest’s unprecedented data set presents new opportunities to build the next generation of search that’s personalized to each person on Pinterest,” Keller said in a statement.

Pinterest building visual-search technology that translates pictures into the words

Earlier this week, Pinterest announced that it is working on new experimental technology that is capable of seeing the world the way you do.

Dubbed Lens, this new technology lets people use the camera in the Pinterest app to discover ideas inspired by objects they see out in the real world.

“Sometimes you spot something out in the world that looks interesting, but when you try to search for it online later, words fail you. You have this rich, colorful picture in your mind, but you can’t translate it into the words you need to find it. Now there’s a way to discover ideas without having to find the right words to describe them first,” the company said in a statement.

This Lens technology seems an amazing thing.

“You can point Lens at a pair of shoes, then tap to see related styles or even ideas for what else to wear them with. Or try it on a table to find similar designs and even other furniture from the same era. You can also use Lens with food. Just point it at broccoli or a pomegranate to see what recipes come up. Patterns and colors can also lead you in fun, interesting or even just plain weird new directions,” according to the company.

Pinterest said that Lens currently help you find home decor ideas, things to wear and food to eat. But in the future, the company plans to make many impartments in the coming days.