Pinterest introduces Place Pins service to 'turn inspiration into reality'

Social media website that allows users to curate their favourite content has moved from pictures of cupcakes to global travel

Photo-sharing website Pinterest has announced Place Pins, a new service which allows users to pin photos to a map to plan and document their travels.

Place Pins, which were announced at a San Francisco event and which are also outlined on the Pinterest blog, look to take advantage of the 1.5 million places that are pinned every day.

The service can be used to plan a dream holiday, or to document a trip that is currently happening. Say, for example, you’re traveling across Europe, then the photos that you take on your travels can be pinned onto a map to show exactly where and when they were snapped.

Other details, such as the address of the location, can be attached to Place Pins, meaning they can be easily accessed from wherever, either on a smartphone or a computer.

Collaborative efforts are also possible, with a number of friends being able to club together and create a board. Or, if you’ve already made a board for certain destination, and your friend is set to travel there, they can access your board to help plan their trip.

To create a board of Place Pins, users should select “Add a map” when putting together a new board. Existing boards can also have maps added to them.

A number of travel experts, including VisitBritain and EarthXplorer, have already made use of Place Pins.

The announcement of Place Pins follows the introduction of a number of services to integrate movies, article and products into Pinterest, although the company has always stressed that it wants to inspire real world action.

"We asked ourselves, how can we help people turn their travel inspiration into reality?" reads the blog post announcing the new feature. The website recently finished a $225 million round of funding and is currently valued at $3.8 billion.