Pinterest: Do We Need Another Social Network?

Sat, May 26, 2012

Archive Search

BLOGS

February 22, 2012 | by Abdul Qowi Bastian

A newcomer in the social network field, Pinterest has made itself popular among female American Internet users. (JG Photo)

With our hands full with Facebook and Twitter, do we still have more room for another social network?

Facebook still has the crown as the king of social networks. Twitter follows close as a microblog for breaking news. Google+ was huge in the first few weeks, but that diminished in months and lost its position as a possible contender. Tumblr has a niche market among young people. Foursquare makes it easy to stalk people, while Path lets your friends know every single detail of your life.

MySpace is a digital graveyard, and Friendster is a name that used to ring loud but now has turned itself into a Malaysia-based gaming site. Recently, I’ve been alerted to another social network site named Pinterest.

In the past couple weeks, it has come to my attention that Pinterest has been featured in many international news outlets. I predict the name Pinterest will only go up in the next few months.

A newcomer in the social network field, Pinterest has made itself popular among female American Internet users. According to its Web site, Pinterest “lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.” Hmm ... sounds pretty much like a blog, doesn’t it?

Amidst loads of social networks in the industry, one cannot help but ask, what does Pinterest have to offer? What makes it different from the others? Why does it attract white, female users as early-adopters?

I've seen the site and am now waiting for approval to join the Web site. From what I gathered after taking a glimpse at pinterest.com, it looks like a digital corkboard where one can “pin” interests on the board, be it design, fashion, books or anything. It allows users to share mostly cute images of projects or products. It's sort of like Tumblr with a strong emphasize on photos.

No, wait, it’s very much like Tumblr with pictures of kitties, tattoos, skinny girls, cute jewelry, motivational words, food, colorful assorted candies, inspirational home designs, wooden houses, indie films like Donnie Darko, and funny animals, as well as quotes from great minds like Albert Einsten and more. All these are placed onto categories such as “Recipes,” “Vinyl Toys,” “Craft Ideas,” “Pretties,” “Words,” “Motivacionales,” “Something Delicious,” “Delightful Design”, and “I Want This,” among others.

It is in line with the people behind Pinterest's mission, “to connect everyone in the world through the things they find interesting … With millions of new pins added every week, Pinterest is connecting people all over the world based on shared tastes and interests.”

Wait, there's more. The web editor for the Boston Business Journal, Galen Moore, decided to pull his “pinboards” down shortly after experimenting with the site. It appears that, in Moore's own words, “Pinterest's service agreement gives it the right to sell images that users upload.”

Most users are likely to skip the “key terms and conditions” before agreeing upon joining a new site on the Internet. This is where it’s misleading to its users. In an era where Facebook is reported to share information through its applications to advertisers and Internet tracking companies, do we need to get worried about possible lawsuits, too?

All in all, Pinterest is promising to be next “it thing” in 2012. Ratings firm Comscore announced that Pinterest was the third-fastest growing site in the US with its members rising from 4.9 million in November 2011 to 11.7 million in January 2012. Not to mention that Pinterest office is in Palo Alto, California, the same city where Facebook headquarter is located, if that counts for something.

Beep, beep. Oh, there's an e-mail from “Ben and the Pinterest Team.” It says, “Hi! Thanks for joining the Pinterest waiting list. We'll be sure to send you an invite soon.”

What do I do now? I don’t think I need another social network. I simply prefer functionality rather than displays/layouts when choosing which social networks to use.

Share This Page

Share with google+ :

Post a comment

COMMENTS

499693

charyza

6:28pm Mar 6, 2012

nooo... my hands already full w/facebook & twitter...

it depends on personal needs, I guess. some using it for work, some using it for hobbies/collections, etc

nonredneck

10:57pm Feb 23, 2012

Not viral for this piece unfortunately, but good adverts nefretiriii, you should get paid.

nefretiriii

1:36pm Feb 23, 2012

btw, do YOU want a Pinterest invite? I can send you one :p

nefretiriii

1:34pm Feb 23, 2012

Yes it's yet another social network, but one that fits the needs of many. With the immense rush of information we're exposed to everyday through media and internet, Pinterest provides an easy and totally brainless way for people to get information and share it (repin!) immediately. We don't have to come up with witty descriptions if we don't want to, and the information goes viral just like that. To me, Pinterest is the lazy form of social network, I used to have to write lengthy witty blog posts to get exposure. Then comes Tumblr, microblogging aka short blog posts. Then comes Twitter, where you only need to type 140 characters. PINTEREST: IT'S ALL JUST PICS PICS AND PICS. YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO READ. Just see, click like, or repin. ANYWHERE ON THE INTERNETZ. Gotta admit, I kinda need that level of brainlessness sometimes :p

sicepot

12:10am Feb 23, 2012

i need real life friends not just a fictional one