6 ms·

Hey, I run the Growth team at Pinterest. I just wanted to comment on the article to be very clear and say we have never scraped Google search results either cur

by jwegan 6y ago

Hey, I run the Growth team at Pinterest. I just wanted to comment on the article to be very clear and say we have never scraped Google search results either currently or at any time in the past.

treis 6y ago
Do you scrape information from any site?
bberenberg 6y ago
Are you aware of anyone who is not financially incentivized by Pinterests success that thinks your practices are acceptable?
llacb47 6y ago
Do you think it's bad that Pinterest is known as an annoying site? What are you doing about it?
frandroid 6y ago
"We" is the growth team, or all of pinterest?
wolrah 6y ago
I have two questions for you then. First, if you insist that you have not scraped data then can you offer an alternative explanation for the data being presented here? Second, it's pretty clear that the majority of at least the tech community hates what you do with the regwall. Do you not know how bad your site's behavior makes GIS for those of us who aren't interested in joining it? Or do you just not care?
- notacoward 6y ago
  I'm guessing that they use one or more third parties that do indeed scrape Google results but provide plausible deniability in the process. And I'd look very closely at the employment histories of principals at those nominal "third" parties. It's not that uncommon in this industry to find companies with exactly one customer, staffed entirely by ex-employees of that one customer.
  - shostack 6y ago
    Interesting. Can you cite any examples if it isn't uncommon?
- mdoms 6y ago
  I think my comment presents a far more likely scenario than scraping Google search results. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23708642 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23708642
ryanb 6y ago
Can you help explain why the Pin descriptions are so similar (or often exactly the same) as what's in the SERPs elsewhere?
nikanj 6y ago
There's a Chrome extension [1] just to filter out Pinterest results, because Pinterest fills the results with crap. As the head of the team responsible for the need for this extension, are proud of the work you do? [1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/unpinterested/gefaihkenmchjmcpcbpdijpoknfjpbfe https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/unpinterested/gefa...
nimih 6y ago
At the point where you're actively polluting google search results as if you had such a scraping program, is this a meaningful distinction to make for anyone other than Google's TOS compliance team?
nxc18 6y ago
Can you please explain to me how you think its ethical or just personally acceptable to run a team that actively makes the web a worse experience for everyone? I look forward to your company's downfall and it sounds like the blame lies solely on you and your team. Please consider the reputational cost of 'growth'.
- dang 6y ago
  You can't attack another user like this here, regardless of how right you are or feel. Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules.
dethswatch 6y ago
Your company is the reason images.google is useless unless -pinterest is used. "100 presents for grandmothers 2019" is just web badfaith, sleazy internet pollution.
bhahn 6y ago
> we have never scraped Google search results either currently or at any time in the past. Just an observation that this very specific denial without offering anything else makes me think that what they _actually_ do is probably controversial as well.
shostack 6y ago
Not specific to the article but about the growth team structure at Pinterest. Is growth an engineering/product led org? Does it have a marketing leader as well? I've come across a couple instances where growth responsibilities seem not in the land of marketing and I'm curious how those teams are structured and why.

by jwegan 6y ago

Hey, I run the Growth team at Pinterest. I just wanted to comment on the article to be very clear and say we have never scraped Google search results either currently or at any time in the past.

treis 6y ago

Do you scrape information from any site?

bberenberg 6y ago

Are you aware of anyone who is not financially incentivized by Pinterests success that thinks your practices are acceptable?

llacb47 6y ago

Do you think it's bad that Pinterest is known as an annoying site? What are you doing about it?

frandroid 6y ago

"We" is the growth team, or all of pinterest?

wolrah 6y ago

I have two questions for you then. First, if you insist that you have not scraped data then can you offer an alternative explanation for the data being presented here? Second, it's pretty clear that the majority of at least the tech community hates what you do with the regwall. Do you not know how bad your site's behavior makes GIS for those of us who aren't interested in joining it? Or do you just not care?

notacoward 6y ago
I'm guessing that they use one or more third parties that do indeed scrape Google results but provide plausible deniability in the process. And I'd look very closely at the employment histories of principals at those nominal "third" parties. It's not that uncommon in this industry to find companies with exactly one customer, staffed entirely by ex-employees of that one customer.
- shostack 6y ago
  Interesting. Can you cite any examples if it isn't uncommon?
mdoms 6y ago
I think my comment presents a far more likely scenario than scraping Google search results. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23708642 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23708642

ryanb 6y ago

Can you help explain why the Pin descriptions are so similar (or often exactly the same) as what's in the SERPs elsewhere?

nikanj 6y ago

There's a Chrome extension [1] just to filter out Pinterest results, because Pinterest fills the results with crap. As the head of the team responsible for the need for this extension, are proud of the work you do? [1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/unpinterested/gefaihkenmchjmcpcbpdijpoknfjpbfe https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/unpinterested/gefa...

nimih 6y ago

At the point where you're actively polluting google search results as if you had such a scraping program, is this a meaningful distinction to make for anyone other than Google's TOS compliance team?

nxc18 6y ago

Can you please explain to me how you think its ethical or just personally acceptable to run a team that actively makes the web a worse experience for everyone? I look forward to your company's downfall and it sounds like the blame lies solely on you and your team. Please consider the reputational cost of 'growth'.

dang 6y ago
You can't attack another user like this here, regardless of how right you are or feel. Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules.

dethswatch 6y ago

Your company is the reason images.google is useless unless -pinterest is used. "100 presents for grandmothers 2019" is just web badfaith, sleazy internet pollution.

bhahn 6y ago

> we have never scraped Google search results either currently or at any time in the past. Just an observation that this very specific denial without offering anything else makes me think that what they _actually_ do is probably controversial as well.

shostack 6y ago

Not specific to the article but about the growth team structure at Pinterest. Is growth an engineering/product led org? Does it have a marketing leader as well? I've come across a couple instances where growth responsibilities seem not in the land of marketing and I'm curious how those teams are structured and why.