Sadly and with no good excuse, I'm often late to jump on some really cool bandwagons.
Some co-workers and I were discussing various ways that people share ideas/likes/inspiration online, and how most of those tools are awfully utilitarian. There are a few sharing/bookmarking tools that have taken a strong visual twist. Flickr has a significant piece of that pie, but it's confined to the images that have been uploaded, which are in turn confined (to a degree) by ownership of the images. Canv.as was an interesting experiment, and clearly some people love it, but I was completely baffled by it and abandoned it within a couple of days.
The one that currently has my attention is Pinterest. It's easy to understand, easy to browse, it's entirely visual, and the "Pin" tool used to add items is super easy to use. It has all the good stuff...the social aspects of sharing, following, liking, re-sharing, etc. It's flexible, too, with the ability to configure your own system of categorization and labeling.
How many times have you had time on your hands and yet you open a browser and think "Ugh, I think I've read the entire internet and I'm bored with it all!" Somehow this one simple tool has made me see the internet with a new eye. I look forward to a few minutes here and there of browsing for beauty. Suddenly the idea of having digital, visual inspiration boards opens up a whole new supply of creative energy. I have an itch to collect images of everything...remodeling ideas for my house, places I want to travel, even design elements I like that might influence my work.
What is it about this one little tool that made me feel like the internet is fresh again? Can we learn from this and apply it elsewhere? What is Pinterest teaching us?
