Pinteresting

I have a mildly obsessive interest in Pinterest. And I'm not getting paid to mention it, by the way.

It is a website that allows you to assemble a web-based inspiration board for whatever topic you'd like. This is a lifesaver for things like decor ideas, recipes, fashion, projects, and anything you can think of that can be represented through an image. My mother and I are even working on our Christmas lists through the site!

 Here's the deal:

When I log in, I see things that have been recently pinned by people I follow. It's similar to the feed on Facebook. You have the option to like, comment, or repin your friends image to your own inspiration board.

When you click on someone's "pin," you see a larger version of the image and can see where the image came from. If you click the larger image, it will actually take you back to the original site where it was pinned! This feature makes it an excellent way to clear out the growing mound of bookmarks in your toolbar!

Each pin is part of a "board," like an inspiration board. What a great way to replace all those collages I made for my personal lookbook! As you can see I have boards for fashion, my dream home, entertaining, recipes, DIY projects and random things that are too cute to forget about.

But the best part of Pinterest is the "Pin It" button. You add this button to your bookmarks bar in your browser -- but it doesn't take you to another page. When you browse the internet and find something you want to mark, hit the "Pin It" button and all of the images will be extracted from that page. Choose the image that best represents what you are trying to save and a pin will automatically be created without you ever leaving that page. You can label the pin, make notes and even share with your social networks without interrupting your Internet surfing session.

At this point, the network is dominated largely by women: mommies, brides to be, graphic designers, photographers. Maybe the million images of DIY baby booties and glittery pumps is a little intimidating for men, children and the professional world...but I really think there is potential with this form of social networking.

To me it seems like an eye-catching adaptation of Twitter. Microblogging with images! And because you can choose which of a user's boards you subscribe to, there is the same thematic organization as with most blogs.

I'm not really sure yet how else this program would be applied -- I imagine work presentations, interior design boards, wishlists -- I'm sure there are other brilliant ways to apply Pinterest. I think the job of the company (and they have their work cut out for them) is to rebrand this and expand their audience.

But personally, I'm really looking forward to the future of this site!