3 ms·

Pinterest is a visual search engine, not a social network. Comparing it to SNAP or Facebook valuation is missing the entire point. I think Pinterest has other

Pinterest is a visual search engine, not a social network. Comparing it to SNAP or Facebook valuation is missing the entire point. I think Pinterest has other problems - mostly a market based on manipulating it - but hell so does google but google is further along in tech/services to increase quality. What i really can't stand about pinterest is that even though it is a visual search - it requires an obscene amount of work from creators to be competitive - having to update your "pins" monthly and cycle them through and do A/B testing all the meanwhile others are stealing or borrowing your pins to enter those search terms/markets it creates a downward spiral - soon topics look spammy and only those who can afford to commit so much time/effort see the reward - then they turn around and start a business selling their idea. No one looks at your boards anymore, they all search so people stuff their boards to find every variation of keyword and its starting to surface up to the search meaning searches get spammed by those who got there first rather than those most relevent.

abacadaba 8y ago
"Pinterest is a visual search engine" Aaah, ok kinda make sense now. Been hearing about this site for years, and I still don't 'get' what it actually is. I think the part of my brain that understands social media is broken.
- peonicles 8y ago
  Maybe it's social media that is broken.
- slantyyz 8y ago
  I just use it for bookmarking images I might want to come back to or share in the future (e.g., my favorite XKCDs, screenshots of GUIs for inspiration, etc.). The funny thing is that even though I have lots of clippings, I rarely ever go back to Pinterest to actually look at them.
  - edmundsauto 8y ago
    I've found that for myself, the joy is in the collecting, not in the having.
    - gummyworm 7y ago
      That was the case for myself as well. I used to find in therapeutic to pin cookie recipes and Halloween decorations during my work break (from a job I was not too fond of).
pndy 8y ago
> Pinterest is a visual search engine, not a social network. That's exactly how it was promoted by major general news portals in Poland few years ago - as an amazing site where you can "pin" images to your board and see what others pick. I did tested it for a while but in comparison to microblogging platform like tumblr or soup it was way too chaotic in displaying content and navigation, so I left it without regrets. In last years it become an annoying element of image search results in Google; it still seems to be sucking out images from other sites either by bots or with human help and pretending to be the source of searched image (which in some cases means it steals the views), and whenever you want to see image you were looking for, it asks you to sign in by dumping curtain over the content blocking it. I don't see how this service can be useful to anyone but s. media influencers and those who naively believe they joined a cool site who does some great thing providing "inspirations".
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

abacadaba 8y ago

"Pinterest is a visual search engine" Aaah, ok kinda make sense now. Been hearing about this site for years, and I still don't 'get' what it actually is. I think the part of my brain that understands social media is broken.

peonicles 8y ago
Maybe it's social media that is broken.
slantyyz 8y ago
I just use it for bookmarking images I might want to come back to or share in the future (e.g., my favorite XKCDs, screenshots of GUIs for inspiration, etc.). The funny thing is that even though I have lots of clippings, I rarely ever go back to Pinterest to actually look at them.
- edmundsauto 8y ago
  I've found that for myself, the joy is in the collecting, not in the having.
  - gummyworm 7y ago
    That was the case for myself as well. I used to find in therapeutic to pin cookie recipes and Halloween decorations during my work break (from a job I was not too fond of).

pndy 8y ago

> Pinterest is a visual search engine, not a social network. That's exactly how it was promoted by major general news portals in Poland few years ago - as an amazing site where you can "pin" images to your board and see what others pick. I did tested it for a while but in comparison to microblogging platform like tumblr or soup it was way too chaotic in displaying content and navigation, so I left it without regrets. In last years it become an annoying element of image search results in Google; it still seems to be sucking out images from other sites either by bots or with human help and pretending to be the source of searched image (which in some cases means it steals the views), and whenever you want to see image you were looking for, it asks you to sign in by dumping curtain over the content blocking it. I don't see how this service can be useful to anyone but s. media influencers and those who naively believe they joined a cool site who does some great thing providing "inspirations".

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]