Pinterest

Currently I have a bit of an obsession. And this obsession is called Pinterest. Have you heard of it? It might just be one of my very favorite things ever on the computer, next to Google Reader.

I feel like Pinterest was made just for me. I feel like the inventor of this lovely website stepped inside my brain and knows how it works. I feel like I am love with this website called Pinterest.

Enough gushing, let me actually explain what Pinterest is.

According to Pinterest’s own site; “Pinterest is a social catalog service. Think of it as a virtual pinboard — a place where you can post collections of things you love, and "follow" collections created by people with great taste.”

By using a special button (called the “pinterest bookmarklet”) that you put in your internet menu bar, you can pin images from any website to your boards.

If you are like me and like to bookmark a lot of things on the blogs you read (or anywhere around the Internet), instead of bookmarking tons of things or saving images to your computer, you just pin them to one of your virtual pinboards. The image of your choice is saved along with a direct link back to the original post.

Basically, Pinterest makes an “inspiration board” of sorts from all the things you pin. You have the option of making many different boards with different categories so you can keep all your pins organized. For example, I have a board called “DIY that I have got to TRY” filled with projects that I see around that I want to try for myself, and another board called “I will I will BAKE you” filled with recipes for baked goods.

I love that I can see the images of everything I pin since I am a very visual person. I also love that I can see what others are pinning and I can re-pin their lovely finds to my boards.

If you are interested in seeing more, you can check out my Pinterest profile here.

I don’t know what I did before Pinterest. I joined the site on August 22nd and since then I’ve accumulated 20 boards, 2,372 pins, and 218 likes. That’s a lot of visual bookmarking in less than a month!

I do believe that you have to have either have a Facebook account or Twitter account to join Pinterest. But doesn’t nearly everyone by now? Also, joining Pinterest is currently by invitation only. I do happen to have 4 invitations left to give out. If you'd like one, leave a comment below. Please include your email address in the appropriate field (I'll need it to invite you).

Happy pinning! And happy weekend!

Credit: Pinterest: Paul, Yash, and Ben work on Pinterest as proud members of Cold Brew Labs, a startup in sunny Palo Alto, CA. They get lots of help from their very talented friend Evan.