The Rise of Pinterest

Stephanie Duff, PNN Staff
February 22, 2012
Filed under Life, Top Stories

The rise of Pinterest

If you have yet to hear about Pinterest, then you’re totally out of the loop.

Pinterest is amongst one of the top social networking sites used by Web gurus.

Users of the site typically are those who enjoy expressing and sharing their interests and do so by posting images, onto a personally fixated page called a Pinboard,  that are fun, interesting, thrilling, motivating, disgusting…you name it, they post it.

Each Pinboard is entitled with topics like sports, home accessories, books, etc. Once you find an image of your taste, simply post it inside the Pinboard with its related topic.

Although Pinterest does not have users spending a great deal of time on the site, such as Facebook, but TechCrunch reports that Pinterest is the fastest growing standalone site, ever: In May 2011, Pinterest had a lonely 418,000 monthly visitors. This number flew up December…all the way to 7.5 million and then to 11.7 million in January.

Obviously, we see it does excel in popularity. The “Pin It” button partakes in Pinterest’s social Web success.  To “pin” an image is nearly the same as to “Like” something on Facebook. The only difference is anyone who is a Pinterest user can see whatever image or quote that you “pin” on a Pinboard, rather than having only your friends or groups see the image you “Like” on Facebook.

Pinterest emphasizes its usefulness in a variety of areas: redecorating your room; plan a wedding; find your style; save your inspirations; and save your recipes.

Proven in the sites success rates, these topics have drawn in many users. But, it has not seized the interest of all people and especially not PNC student Will Culbertson. He believes Pinterest is “dumb.”

“Girls are using it to plan their weddings when they aren’t even dating anyone,” Culbertson vented on his feelings towards the new social networking site. “They keep pinning recipes that they’re never going to cook. Maybe if they actually did cook them, they’d have a boyfriend and then an excuse to plan a wedding,” he joked.

So, perhaps there’s an overlapping woman-interest in the images and topics highlighted on Pinterest.

What do you think???

Leave us your comments/thoughts/suggestions!!