Social Networking sites are addictives and people are bent upon accessing them many times a day – posting their images, status, friendly messages and busy reading what friends in their circles do. Most of us have accounts and regularly access : Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter etc., Sure you know the creator and CEO of Facebook – Mark Elliot Zuckerberg and would you interested in a news of his creating a profile (seemingly authentic) and following 125 people on site but posting little content himself. Friends, follow and Like are the most sought after passions of a Facebook user ! This site where Zuckerberg has created a profile on a social networking site that has close to 12 million unique visitors in the U.S - the fastest social network ever to hit the figure. It is “Pinterest” – and on this Zuck follows the accounts of internet entrepreneurs such as Digg's Kevin Rose, as well as relations including his sister Donna. It is remarked that – it is too early to say Pinterest poses a threat to Facebook in any way, the simple content sharing site can easily be called the hottest startup of 2012.
Pinterest is a vision board-styled social
photo sharing website. It is especially popular among women. The website and
application allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections.
The site's mission statement is to "connect everyone in the world through
the 'things' they find interesting." Pinterest is managed by Cold Brew Labs, a team
based in Palo Alto, California. Development of Pinterest began in December
2009, and the site launched as a closed beta in March 2010. The site proceeded
to operate in invitation-only open beta. Later, the site made registration
possible after an email request.
On August 16, 2011, Time magazine
published Pinterest in its "50 Best Websites of 2011" column. The
Pinterest app for iPhone was last updated in August 2011.The company also has a
mobile website. In December 2011, the site entered the top 10
social networks, according to Hitwise data, with 11 million total visits per
week. The next month, it drove more
referral traffic to retailers than Linked In, You Tube, and Google+. The same month, the company was named the
best new start up of 2011 by TechCrunch.
In January 2012, comScore reported the site had 11.7 million unique
users, making it the fastest site in history to break through the 10 million
unique visitor mark.Users of Pinterest curate themed image boards, populating them with media found online using the "Pin It" button, or uploaded from their computer. Each such item of media is known as a "pin," and can be a picture, a video, a discussion or a monetary gift. Pins can be grouped into "boards," which are sets of pins created on a given topic. Pinterest can be accessed by adding the “pin it” button to the desktop bookmark bar, “follow me” and “pin it” button added to personal website or blog pages, and Pinterest for iPhone available through the App Store. Currently, the Users have to link their Pinterest account to their Facebook or Twitter account. Users choosing to log in via Facebook must currently be using (or opt in to) Facebook's "timeline" format. It is on this that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has created a profile; has 'followed' 125 people on the site, but has posted little content himself. So would you now open a Pinterest account and start pinning images ? I am not planning to have one as I am not very comfortable with FB ‘timeline’ format. With regards – S. Sampathkumar. 17th Feb 2011
