Gone are the days of leisurely whiling away
moments hours sifting through pins of dream kitchens, impossible waterfall braids and obscenely hot boots unfettered by ubiquitous ads.
Commercial-free Pinterest has gone the way of Magie Noire and Max Factor Pan-Stik. Starting today the online bulletin board has begun testing its new ad platform.
But don't freak out just yet -- according to those in the know, Pinterest is not going to turn into Facebook quite yet. You won't have ads of things you
just bought on Amazon or clicked through on Sundance popping up all over the place. The Pinterest model is much more stringent; for this phase at least, the ads will only be found in the category and search areas of the site and, for now, they've hand-picked the brands that will be hawking their wares.
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Lululemon, Target and all the Gap properties (Athleta, Banana Republic, PiperLime, Old Navy) have made the grade.
"These brands will help us test Promoted Pins to make sure they're tasteful, transparent, relevant and improved based on Pinner feedback -- so that Pinterest continues to be a great experience for everyone," Joanne Bradford, Pinterest's new head of partnerships, explains.
And, don't be shy; if you
loathe the new iteration and find your Pinterest interest waning as a result,
do take a moment to send them your two cents -- everything I've read about this endeavor indicates that they're truly going to take user experience into account and do everything possible to keep you coming back (while attempting to monetize the experience).
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