Your Pinterest board is about to get a lot more interesting.
Pinterest announced today that it's finally releasing an API for developers, which will enable them to build apps based on Pinterest's user data. The news, which Pinterest announced in a blog post, is a long time coming, considering that other platforms like Facebook and Twitter have been working with developers for ages. But unlike these platforms, whose APIs have been abused by developers in the past, Pinterest is trying to take a more measured approach to third party apps. Starting today, developers can sign up for access to Pinterest's API, but for the time being, Pinterest will only whitelist a select few.
"We've seen other platforms grow and shrink and do what they needed to do to moderate the community," says Josh Inkenbrandt, the product manager leading Pinterest's developer platform. "We wanted to be very deliberate about the APIs we designed, so they were focused on a clear value exchange between Pinterest users and developers, to make sure the incentives are aligned."
But what will developers be able to do with this new ability? Inkenbrandt says Pinterest will be looking for apps that bring more functionality to Pinterest, which most people use today to discover new things---be they recipes, outfits, or craft projects---that they want to buy or make or save for later. With these apps, Inkenbrandt predicts it'll become even easier for Pinners to take that next step.
"You can imagine applications can help them book a trip or order the ingredients for that recipe. Those are the obvious cases," Inkenbrandt says. But there are less obvious cases, like apps that can help bring together members of the same interest groups on Pinterest. "If you’re a big history buff, there are a lot of great history Pins on Pinterest. So, maybe you build a network that connects people who share those interests," he adds.
According to Inkenbrandt, the company has taken special caution to ensure that developers don't abuse user data. For starters, the API requires developers to get authorization from users for access to their information. And the API doesn't give developers access to users' feeds, only the content that they have Pinned, themselves. Taking the time to design the API so that its less ripe for abuse, Inkenbrandt says, is one reason why Pinterest took longer to open itself up to developers than other platforms.
"As developers gained a lot of control there was a balancing that had to be done by other platforms," Inkenbrandt explains, referring to how platforms like Facebook and Twitter have had to manage and at times admonish third party developers. "That was something we didn't want to happen, and when we were thinking about the APIs we were careful about what we would enable at the start."
For interested developers, there's good reason to adhere to the rules. To date, Pinterest has amassed over 50 billion Pins, providing a new potential treasure trove of data for those who vow to use it responsibly.
