So what the hell is Pinterest?

Someone recently asked me if they should ‘do’ pinterest?

And I responded…..yes, without hesitation!

I don’t use Pinterest as much as I should.  However, I use it in a way that is similar to favouriting/bookmarking websites that grab my attention.  The benefit to doing this is I end up with a visual reminder of the website.  Unlike favouriting, where I have to remember the name of the website and where I filed it, which on most occasions, I can’t.  Then I find myself trolling through my history, which is not ideal as I can barely remember what I had for breakfast yesterday.

So what I do, is when I’m surfing the net and find something I like I just hit the Pin button in my browser.

 

How to add a pinterest button to chrome

 

Alas, I hear you shout, where is that button? I use Chrome instead of Internet Explorer for a number of reasons.  Go to the Chrome Web Store and Search Pinterest Button then scroll down to extensions.  You will see I’ve already added it but it’s the third option.

Adding Pin Button to Chrome

From this day forward you should see the curly P in your browser bar, to the right of the address,  so when you find a site you like, simply hit the Pinterest button, choose what board you’d like to add it to and voila it’s easy to find again.

As I have an unhealthy obsession with my slow cooker, I tend to Pin a lot of recipes, including my own recipes which drives a fair amount of traffic to the blog.  I find it a godsend when I’m looking for meal inspiration!  I’ve recently made this board open so other fans of slow cooking can pin as well.  Click the image below to visit the board.

Pinterest Board for Slow Cooking

 

As part of the #PinItForwardUK campaign, I have the pleasure of introducing Susanne Remic, AKA Ghost Writer Mummy.  She originally started blogging to cope with the traumatic birth of her son, but has now hooked up with Jenny Edspire, who recently lost her nine month old daughter to SIDS and have set up a collaborative board called Learn Through Play.

Pinterest board - all things kids

 I’m in awe of her boards and am drawn to ‘Stuff to do with Kids’ and ‘Parenting Tip’, god knows I need the help!

Happy Pinning!

Pin It Forward UK 2013

Author: mediocremum

A slightly older mum of one, who drinks far too much red wine and has an unhealthy obsession with her slow cooker. During the day she's an ICT Trainer, Social Media/Online Marketing consultant and does a bit of public speaking. Full Profile on Google+

12 thoughts on “So what the hell is Pinterest?”

  1. Why do I need yet another feature to tell me whether or not to bookmark a site. It may have escaped some people’s notice that almost all websites these days use their “own appearance” icon . Developers like us code them as “Favicon” and if you view the browser source of a page you ‘ll see it referenced somewhere near the top. Thuis means that when the page isloaded it will display its own icon. Google is a very good example, look at the tab bar when you load the Google home page. You’ll see a “Coloured G” as an icon. All browsers also have saving and bookmarking functionsbuilt into the browser itself which ALSO save the “Favicon” as a favourite. I see not purpose or future for pinterest other than yet another glorified toolbar. We had a customer not so long ago who managed to fill her entire browser screen with toolbars, they are just a pain in the arse, but if you really do not know how too save a favourite in a browser you should be shot, since it is hardly a new idea, or get some basic lessons in computing, or hand yourself in to the authorities !!!

    John

    1. John, you do crack me up! I’m an IT trainer so not to bad with saving favourites and I can even create new folders. Clever me! ;-) If you notice above I do have a favicon icon, I also have one of Slow Cooker Queen. But this does not allow me to save it for later. I love being able to have boards to be able to collect my favourite websites by topic so I can find them again.

      1. Nice to know i crack you up, good to know after spending most of my life developing software of one sort or another, usually medical or aviation mostly.

        Your icon does not work in IE or Firefox for that matter. Firefox reports that this is because your website does not provide identity information. I’m only getting the standard IE icon here. Although you do have:

        in your source, which should display it. It might be because it is a png file and png is the newest of the image formats. I know that gif & ico work, although png should work from IE 8,9 and 10

        Still cannot see any advantage tyo having a website to help me remember websites though, just use the tools already there that is what they’re for.

        Checked your favicon(s) and none of them show here though, mine does in all browsers without a problem. I also know that they sometimes disappear for no reason at all. I don’t have a problem saving them though, never have had

        1. I will fix it tomorrow my lovely! I don’t use IE as I think it’s the spawn of the devil. Funnily, though last time I tried dicking around with my favicon I managed to seriously break my blog as I left some ‘white space’ in the code. Wish me luck.

          1. I love your way with words Chrissie “IE is ther spawn of the devil” LOL
            I use FF most of the time, cannopt stand Chrome as it is too difficult to change things and they are not that well described in the “Settings Spanner”

            Your’s have suddenly started appearing on my tab bar again, which is odd. This has ben noticed sometims though so it might have just been a “wotsit in the thingumybob”

            :@)

  2. Thank you for the lovely introduction! I’m sog lad you shared about the curly P in the bookmarks bar, loads of people have asked me about that! I often drool over the recipes on Pinterest too, especially the cakes!
    x

  3. I quite like pinterest but I couldn’t really see what it was for and what people did on it for hours on end (I even asked a few other bloggers an no one could tell me) – other than creating pretty mood boards of pictures they like. The travellers and travel writers or business owners with products to display – I got that. But for me…. a total mystery. This week I had a revelation that I could use it in a similar way to your discription above. I’m not just saying that, really just this week I was scrolling down lists of favourited articles with no clue what was behind the headings. Thank you for explaining and confirming. I GET IT NOW! :)

  4. Thanks for participating in Pin It Forward UK, Chrissie! It’s great to hear that you have found so many meal inspirations on Pinterest- it’s fun to find delicious recipes from other pinners! The spinach and macaroni cheese looks amazing- I’ll have to get a slow cooker and try this! Lauren, Community Coordinator

  5. So Midwife Singlebum it is exactly the same as StumbleUpon in essence then
    Seems that there is a lot of identical or extremely similar things like this on
    t’internet :@/

  6. Here are a couple of examples of how you get a page to have its own “Favourite Icon” or “Favicon”, if you write web pages that is

    This is how Google do it on their pagges

    This is how we do it at Kenilworth Computer Repairs
    <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/x-icon" href="/favicon.ico" /

    It's handy to know it can or at least did used to take a while for Google and other engines to recognise that you are using a favicon though

  7. Hmmm…. I’m still not sure I really get it! I mean, I understand what you say about using it for visual bookmarks, but I came completely unstuck just trying to sign up. I was told that I “MUST” follow some boards, but then given only a selection of completely uninteresting boards to choose from and could not fathom how to find ones I actually did have an interest in. If I sign in to pinterest, all I see is a sea of things which are of no relevance to me, and no way to get rid of them! I now only use Pinterst from google – when google itself throws up a pinterest board related to my search (usually things like birthday cake ideas). I’m not sure why I am so dense and have such a block with it, and I suppose I really should try again!

  8. This has explained it really well. I had no idea what is was for (apart from people posting millions of links on twitter to pictures). I now realise it is much more then this, and if I had a go it may be useful. I may have a look if I can be arsed (when feeling less lazy!)

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