Once in a while someone comes up with an app or website based on a deceptively simple idea that soon finds a following and uses that greatly transcend what anyone could imagine. 'Pinterest' is one such site. Over the past few weeks I've been using the 'Pinterest App' on my Nexus 7 and it's quickly become one of my favorite apps to use. So what exactly is 'Pinterest'? Well here's a short video that shows a good overview.
Features:
• Pin what you love from around the web
• Discover content by browsing interest categories
• Explore pins and boards curated by pinners you follow
• Repin, like and comment on your favorite pins
• Pin with your camera
So 'Pinterest' is really a collection of pictures and items that people find across the web and that they 'pin' to their 'Pinboards'. The idea is that each 'Pinboard' represents an interest, passion or category of the 'Pinterest' member and what you end up with is an incredibly 'visual' search engine that let's you meet other people with similar interests. If you like an item on someone else's 'Pinboard' you can pin it to a 'Pinboard' of your own so you don't forget. A 21st century of a scrapbook or 'inspiration collection' It also let's you delve into the interests of both your friends and family as well as virtual strangers with like-minded passions.
Now when 'Pinterest' first came out it had a bit of a reputation of being a site where you could find 'collections' of things like recipes, pictures of cute animals and the like. But it's quickly grown into one of the most popular sites on the net and really dynamic combination of a social networking site and visual search engine.
In my free time I'll look up things that interest me and stumble across all kinds of great stuff that no other site would likely introduce me too. For instance, one of my more idiosyncratic hobbies is collecting 'King Kong Movie Posters'. Doing a search in 'Pinterest' brings up a host of 'Pinboards' where I can meet other like-minded fans of movie posters that have a similar interest to me. Doing a similar search on say 'Google' or 'Yahoo' might bring me up some posters...but it wouldn't introduce me to other people with similar taste nor let me browse through their other passions and interests through their 'Pinboards' the way 'Pinterest' does. Pretty cool, right?
'Pinterest' is helping to enable my ridiculous obsession with 'King Kong' movie posters
I've done searches for certain cars, artwork, foods, restaurants, archtecture...even 'moods' or types of feelings. The visual nature of "Pinterest' really surprises and inspires as you flip through people's passions...and helps nurture and grow your own by seeing what other people have stumbled upon and collected around the web. If you can't tell I highly recommend you give 'Pinterest' a try. I bet it'll soon become one of your favorite sites. Links for both the Android app and the main website below.
