Google takes on Pinterest with Google+ Collections

Google has added a new Collections feature to its Google+ social network, and it all looks rather like Pinterest.

After reports appeared on the internet suggesting that such a feature was forthcoming, Google has officially announced Collections.

The new feature essentially allows you to group your Google+ posts by topic, providing an easy way to organise your interests into categories. These Collections can be shared publicly, with a select group of people, or privately.

Google has launched a Featured collections page that highlights some of the best publicly shared collections, which range from Greek Islands to Star Wars Drawings.

The new Collections feature is rolling out to Google+ accounts on Android and the web now, with iOS to follow. When it arrives, you’ll be prompted to add any new Google+ posts to a collection – whether new or existing.

You can add photos, videos, and text to collections, just as you would an ordinary Google+ post. It’s also possible to add a cover image to new collections to give them a more professional, themed look.

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Whether Google will be able to approach the experience of Pinterest – which has built an entire slick social network out of assembling and following such collections – is another matter entirely.

With Google announcing its intention to split its underpopulated and excessively fiddled-with social network into its constituent parts earlier in the year, cynical types might just view this as yet another half-baked provision thrown against the wall to see if it sticks.