Pinterest, the Newest Social Media Site

Excerpt from an article in The New York Times
Thursday, February 16, 2012

Reviewing Pinterest, the Newest Social Media Site 

By DAVID POGUE

“OMG! Did you see Brad Pitt’s post on Digglr last night?”

“No, I was too busy cruising Cr.us.ta.ce.an. What did he say?”

“OMG, it was all over Regurgtatr!”

Have you ever had the sinking feeling that the online world is moving so fast that you’ll never catch up?

Every year, there’s another hot new online service, another drain into which to pour your time. Question: Once you’re on Facebook and Twitter and Foursquare and Google Plus and Tumblr and LinkedIn and Instagram and Reddit and Path — when, exactly, do you have time left over for a life?

Well, never mind. Incredibly, yet another free site has become white-hot popular, because it’s found yet another purpose not quite served by anyone else. It’s Pinterest.com, which recently laid claim to being the fastest Web site in history to break the 10-million-visitors-a-month threshold. It’s suddenly cropping up in conversation, online and off, with surprising frequency.

Pinterest is a pinboard for online photos. Multiple pinboards, actually, each an individual page in your Pinterest account. You can make one for Cool Craft Ideas, another for Kitchen Redo Concepts, a third for Places to See Before I Die. Or maybe Books I’ve Read, Ideas for the Wedding, Best Web Comics. The sky’s the limit.

(Unlike most start-up Web site names, “Pinterest” actually makes sense. You pin things based on your interests.)

There are several keys to Pinterest’s success, but one of them is the simplicity and pleasure of adding a photo to one of your boards. As you surf the Web each day, whenever you see something that looks interesting or inspiring or funny, you click the Pin It button on your bookmarks bar.