The one thing that annoys me about Pinterest is that it's one of those ideas I really could have thought of and done (but obviously didn't).
I don't mean this in a way to take away anything from the Pinterest team. They had a great idea and seem to be executing really well.
It's just one of those ideas that seems so obvious in hindsight, particularly if you've seen how, for example, women scrapbook for wedding preparation and the like, the rise of "selfies" (and just having a way to list what you're wearing) and so on.
There are many other services that have tried to allow you to share "things" in a given context (eg locations in Foursquare, purchases on Blippy, social integrations with the various music streaming services and so on) but the real genius of Pinterest for me is that it's really about sharing the combination of things, which is of far more value than the individual things themselves.
Pinterest is probably the startup I'm most bullish about. Seriously, congrats guys.
One of the most impressive things I've found about Pinterest's success, is that they stuck with it for over three years before it finally took off. Much like Twitter, it was anything but an overnight success. As with most concepts, getting traction is by far the most difficult aspect.
I don't mean this in a way to take away anything from the Pinterest team. They had a great idea and seem to be executing really well.
It's just one of those ideas that seems so obvious in hindsight, particularly if you've seen how, for example, women scrapbook for wedding preparation and the like, the rise of "selfies" (and just having a way to list what you're wearing) and so on.
There are many other services that have tried to allow you to share "things" in a given context (eg locations in Foursquare, purchases on Blippy, social integrations with the various music streaming services and so on) but the real genius of Pinterest for me is that it's really about sharing the combination of things, which is of far more value than the individual things themselves.
Pinterest is probably the startup I'm most bullish about. Seriously, congrats guys.