Pinterest introduces a new Today tab, a central hub including curated topics and trending posts, as users flock to the service during the pandemic
Scott Nover / Adweek :
Context & Ripple Effects
The Today tab is Pinterest's second run at editorial curation: it already launched an Explore section for trending topics back in 2016, complete with native video, and this new hub consolidates that idea into a front-and-center tab rather than a buried section. The timing is deliberate — the company is seeing a pandemic-driven surge in engagement, giving it both the traffic and the justification to promote curated content to prime real estate.
First-order effects
- Users get a single destination for curated topics and trending posts, shifting daily attention away from the personalized home feed that Pinterest has long tuned around its non-chronological 'Pinnability' ranking.
- A prominent curated surface creates fresh ad inventory: Pinterest already moved ads into users' home feeds with its 2015 home-feed ads rollout, and a hub-style tab is a natural next slot for sponsored placements.
Second-order effects
- Editorial curation now sits alongside algorithmic ranking as a competing distribution path, raising the stakes for which pins get surfaced — and giving Pinterest more control over what trends during a period of heightened, anxiety-tinged usage it has already addressed through mental health resources in search results.
- Rival discovery platforms face pressure to match the curated-hub format while pandemic engagement lasts, since attention surges tend to reset user habits around whichever service offers the richest daily browsing experience.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Pinterest keeps reorganizing its app around consumption-first surfaces — the Today tab's curation-plus-trending model foreshadows the Watch tab for short videos added in the 2021 redesign — moving the product from a personal bookmarking tool toward a media destination where curation and video drive session time.
The trend: Consumer discovery platforms are responding to pandemic-era engagement surges by layering editorially curated, media-style hubs on top of their algorithmic feeds.