Pinterest Promises Users It Won’t Mess Up the Site With Ads (Oh, and It’s Going to Do Ads)

Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann today wrote a blog post justifying and explaining his company’s future and theoretical use of advertising, as a way of cushioning the blow for users of the site.

What will Pinterest’s ads be like? Different and prettier and nicer. They’ll be called “promoted pins” (a la Twitter’s “promoted tweets”) and they’ll be ways for brands to pay to make their pins appear near the top of search results and category feeds.

Silbermann told users that if they see such ads, it’s because Pinterest is going to start testing them for free, because it wants user feedback.

A spokeswoman for the company said she doesn’t yet have images that show what the ads will look like, but that they should start appearing on the site in a few weeks.

Silbermann wrote:

I know some of you may be thinking, “Oh great…here come the banner ads.” But we’re determined to not let that happen. While we haven’t figured out all the details, I can say that promoted pins will be:

—Tasteful. No flashy banners or pop-up ads.

—Transparent. We’ll always let you know if someone paid for what you see, or where you see it.

—Relevant. These pins should be about stuff you’re actually interested in, like a delicious recipe, or a jacket that’s your style.

—Improved based on your feedback. Keep letting us know what you think, and we’ll keep working to make things better.