Google+ Launches Pinterest-like ‘Collections’

There has been a great deal of discussion in the digital marketing industry about the decline of Google+ since Vic Gundotra left a year ago, however, Google appears to still be working on expanding its features. Google+ has introduced a new Pinterest-like feature called “Collections,” which allows users to create boards of images, videos and other content, categorized around particular interests.

With the new Collections feature, users can share their boards either publicly, privately or with a specific set of Google+ users. Additionally, each board can be customized with a background color and a header image. Once a user or Page creates a Collection, a corresponding tab will appear on the profile. Collections can be followed, and posts within Collections that users follow will appear in their Google+ home feeds.

“Our happiest Google+ users are those who connect with others around shared interests and passions,” wrote Google’s Dmitry Shapiro in a blog post. “So we set out to give people a place to express the things they love. Today, we’re announcing Google+ Collections, a new way to group your posts by topic.”

Previously, dealerships and other businesses had to create separate Google+ pages for each topic or vertical, which was a time-consuming undertaking that most were not interested in doing. The new feature will allow brands and businesses to create topic-based feeds on Google+, which fans will be able to follow based on specific categories. This functionality definitely offers potential value to businesses, provided that there are enough users involved to create significant reach.

An early testers of Collections include Brit + Co.

Although this new feature does offer improved functionality for businesses, are they likely to get involved? Certainly, Google+ is far from the first platform that marketers generally consider for their campaigns. However, with Collections, Google is attempting to draw users and marketers in, and it will be interesting to see if it proves to be successful.

In the blog post announcement, Shapiro says that Collections is now available on Android and the Web, with iOS “coming later.” Android users must update the Google+ app to gain access.

Will Google+ Collections help to revive the struggling social network?