William Mungall in front of the skyline.

William Mungall poses in front of a well known building.

William Mungall is an architect in the Los Angeles area.  This is a photo of him on vacation.

William Mungall is a Los Angeles-based architect.  This is a photo of him in front of an archway.

Pinterest Unveils Travel Tool

Pinterest knows what its sweet spots.  One of the big ones is travel, and Pinterest is making a big play to create a more useful tool for vacation planners.  A recent ABC News article explains that the online pinboard site is looking to make interacting with locations more useful for users.  

Up until now, users were only able to create boards that were largely aspirational visual representations of locations they wanted to visit.  The new feature, called Place Pins will allow users to get useful and actionable information alongside their pins of high resolution sunset vistas.  Pinterest is partnering with Foursquare to create interactive maps that will not only allow people to post beautiful photos of the locations they’ll be visiting, but will also show local restaurants and attractions.  Another exciting feature of the rollout is the ability to collaborate on a board with friends.  Anyone who has ever tried to spearhead the planning of a group trip can see that this, if done right, will be a valuable tool.

Some detractors are criticizing Pinterest’s decision to partner with Foursquare due to its limited location data.  While Foursquare has many destinations listed in major metropolises, more remote locations may have been better served by a partnership with Google Maps or other more comprehensive geolocation services.  Pinterest’s response?  There’s more to come.  The social network plans to include integration with restaurant review sites like UrbanSpoon are in the works.  There are also plans to integrate with the controversial short-term subletting app Airbnb.  Pinterest hasn’t explained exactly what the partnership would entail, but the logical use would be finding a cheap unoccupied room to stay in while traveling the globe.

What do you think?  Will Place Pins help plan group trips or is it a gimmicky feature?