Pinterest. The new web addiction.

Facebook was in all of the headlines last week with the highly anticipated IPO announcement and reports of the large group of new millionaires to be born of the company.  This week a new website, Pinterest, has stolen some of the online attention.  Pinterest is exploding in many ways.

What is Pinterest? The websites explanation is a bit outdated:

Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and share their favorite recipes.

Pinterest is fast becoming more than an organization website.   The news this week states that Pinterest is now the fastest growing site for referral traffic.  Several months ago Pinterest wasn't close to being in the top ten referring websites.   Now they have surpassed many sites to move to the top 5.  They have more referrals than YouTube, Google+, Linkdin and Myspace combined.  Yes, Myspace is still in the top ten.

What make Pinterest so exciting and hot?  Before I give my two cents I will confess that I am an addict.  I love food, traveling, new technology and photography.  I can find pics and info for all four on Pinterest with little effort.  With this said, the ease us use is why I think that Pinterest is collecting the eyes of millions of monthly visitors.  Eyes on a website equal increased value and potential investors. they may be positioning themselves for an early buyout.  I do not doubt that Facebook and Google are looking at the possibilities of buying this website before the other if made available.  It will be interesting to see what happens during the next year or even months.

 Whats the catch?

This is something that I was trying to figure out, because there are no ads and signup is as simple as receiving an invite.  the catch as described by blogging site LLSocial.com, if a user submits a pin that links to an e-commerce site with an affiliate program, then Pinterest tweaks that link to add tracking code for the affiliate, according to the report. If someone clicks on the image and actually buys something from the affiliate, Pinterest gets a cut of the sales, LLSocial.com said.   This is not an unusual practice from websites so don't be alarmed.

As I said above Pinterest is still an invitation-only network and is still in it's beta stages.  Something is going very right with this website.  If you are not on Pinterest you will want to check it out. Send me an email for an invite.  otherwise the waiting period from the site could be lengthy.


 I'll continue pinning my favorite photo, gadget, food item and destination photos.  I also hope that my wife remains addicted to the recipes so she will continue making some great treats like the Cookie Dough dip below.