6 Sites Like Pinterest: Imitators and Copycats

In 2008, I wrote a post for Web Worker Daily about the way Twitter was have an impact on the way we communicate (How Twitter is a Communications Game Changer). One of the points I made was how Twitter was spawning imitators (at the time, Jaiku and Pownce, Plurk, blippr and Kwippy, to name a few). Today, Pinterest is the target (or inspiration?) for a slew of copycat sites, even down to uncanny interface similarities. (Tell me Pinspire isn’t a direct imitation of Pinterest but for the European set.)

Here are just a few:

1. PinView – This app lets you browse Facebook in the same way you browse Pinterest and presents images and information in a decidedly Pinterest fashion.

2. Pinvolve – This Facebook app let’s others discover content from your Facebook Page in a Pinterest-like manner by creating a new area on your Page that presents your photo posts as a pinboard. You Page fans can then easily pin things from your Facebook Page directly to Pinterest.

3. Friendsheet – View Facebook photos, pictures of your Facebook friends, pictures of you and your own photos in a Pinterest-like format. (Note: I couldn’t get it to work for my own account which could be tied to my privacy settings.)

4. Gentlemint – If Pinterest is “for women,” then Gentlemint is decidedly “male.” The visceral impression you get when you arrive at Gentlemint versus Pinterest is pretty striking. Stereotypical? You be the judge…

 

Trippy – I heart Trippy. It’s like all the wonderful aspects of Pinterest but totally focused on travel and travel planning and with more features. Log in with your Facebook account and “share travel ideas with your friends.” You can not only build up your own “boards” for places you’ve been and places you want to go, but you can create a travel planning board and connect with friends who have actually been to the place you’re going (or live there) and can make highly personal recommendations. I’m just getting started with it – including planning a trip to Costa Rica – but here’s my Trippy page. And here is my Costa Rica trip planning section.

 5. Indulgy – This is like Pinterest, but with a black background. Fashion, interior decor, food, luxury products…

6. Fancy  (thefancy.com) – Instead of pinning something, you can “fancy” it. The layout of Fancy is a variation on the theme of blocks of photos with greater size variations. You can also view the images as a slideshow.

There are countless other “create and share your inspiration” type sites including We Heart It and Piccsy, but so far none of them have seemed to capture the imagination, attention or numbers like Pinterest. Many of them have Facebook integration, but all of them have two major things in common: they are very visual and are very easy to use (save Trippy which is much more feature-rich and takes a little figuring out).

What do you think of these Pinterest dopplegangers or the influence Pinterest is having on the way we publish, share and connect online?