These days we get a new “it” thing every few months. Right now a newish service called Pinterest qualifies as next year’s Google+ or Twitter.
Essentially, Pinterest is a social bookmarking site that focuses on images. So, it’s a bit of a mashup of sorts between Delicious and Flickr.
When you “pin” something you share an image and link to the original content you found online. You can surf the web and pin just about anything you find. You can also create related collections of things called “Pinboards” – a bit like tagging. Visitors to the site, and of course, followers of your pinning activity, can discover new things grouped into a variety of categories.
Brides to be have embraced the site, graphic designers, hand made artists, fashion designers and really anyone with goods and services that show well visually have found new sources of traffic via the site. (Word is Pinterest has become the #1 source of traffic to Etsy.)
There’s something very compelling about the visual aspect of the presentation that has turned Pinterest surfing into somewhat of an addiction for brides, designers, foodies, students, fashionistas and those in search of the latest trends.
Personally, I think Pinterest has taken off due in large part to the fact that we’ve all become so overwhelmed with information that anything that is easy to scan with little to no mental engagement is what gets our attention. Stunning images certainly fit that requirement.
