Google’s got a Pinterest competitor called Keen

In the eternal quest to make sure all its bases are covered, Google is taking on Pinterest.

The search engine giant quietly launched Keen on Thursday. Google is billing Keen (available on the web and on Android) as a way to “share your passions” with people, which basically means you can curate special little boards based on your interests. If you like basketball, make a basketball-themed board (called a Keen), which Google will auto-populate with content relevant to that particular interest.

Unlike Pinterest, it all works through Google’s AI and search engine technology. When you make a Keen, the site asks you to give it some search prompts it can use to bring you content, but it also auto-generates prompts of its own if you feel like letting Keen do the work for you. In the case of my basketball board, sitting back and letting Keen take care of things gave me a bunch of YouTube compilations and the Wikipedia page for basketball.

It’s a social platform, of course, so you can share your Keens with others or even invite friends to be collaborators so they can help you build the best Keen you can. That’s really about all there is to Keen right now. Maybe it’ll be a real rival to Pinterest or maybe it’ll go the way of Google+. 

Regardless, I’m going to check out this Wikipedia article to learn some fun facts about my favorite sport.