Pinterest's New Head of Engineering Bolsters Visual Search Prospects

A recent Marketingland article reveals that Jeremy King, a previous e-commerce tech from Walmart and VP of engineering at Ebay, joins the social media web and mobile application, Pinterest. In recent months, Pinterest has made several moves to expand their e-commerce capabilities, with ad spaces and product tagging tools to make items shoppable in images. This new addition to the team hopes to "build a visual discovery engine for all." While the enthusiasm is great and the opportunity is definitely there, other giants such as Instagram and Snapchat are quickly jumping to the race and creating ways to make a purchase nearly immediate. In IG, you can now checkout and pay for items through the app itself, often simply by clicking on the product tag in a particular image. I wonder what will happen next as more developments unravel and novel technologies increase. Whatever it is, companies should remember that an idea is not novel forever and others are similarly craving for their next money maker. Better patent all that you can asap.