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Pinterest Raises $200M

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Re: Pinterest Raises $200M

#14

Post by cletus »

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.

Re: Pinterest Raises $200M

#15

Post by steve_benjamins »

"In the future search will be a discovery tool" ... I think this sentence needs some work. It feels empty of meaning. Am I missing something? Or does the sentence really simply mean: "in the future search will be a way to discover things"?

Because in that case the future may already be here :)

Re: Pinterest Raises $200M

#19

Post by duaneb »

loceng wrote: post #3

I imagine Facebook will try to acquire Pinterest - if there is any money left.

Pinterest would be fools to accept their money at orders of magnitude better valuations. Pinterest has a solid product, a vastly better user experience (albeit solving different problems), is not pressed to find or invent business models, and could easily expand into more commercial areas. Facebook is a brand people love to hate, it has a stench of evil, and a highly uncertain financial future. What could Facebook do for Pinterest?

Re: Pinterest Raises $200M

#20

Post by mynameishere »

I've heard the name and ignored it. But what the hell, let's take a look. Obviously, this website is very popular with some people but if you go to the default page you get this:

http://imgur.com/XWdkO8i

...a popup that says "He used Pinterest to start his collection" on top of a blurry background. Who's "He"? Sign up with Facebook? Why? And all this confusion in a popup? Really? The very worst aspect of 1990s web design--pointless popups--on the front page of a trendy website? And with no obvious way to close the popup? And I kept expecting the 45 seconds to go to zero, like a time bomb, but nothing happened. Not only are you annoying and threatening me with a timer, but it's totally static. Really? Why not put a dancing William Shatner next to it? That would really bring back the memories.

But you can, in fact, close the popup. Go to the bottom and click "About Pinterest", and you get this:

http://imgur.com/6NDBdUm

"It's helpful. New descriptive guides help steer your search in the right directions" ...with a picture of a phone and links to install pinterest on my iphone or android devices. ...but, why would I do that? Even after reading an article about the company and looking at their "about us" page, I have no clue what their reason for existence is. Visual Web? You mean "img" tags? That part of the web?

What am I doing wrong? Am I like a person outside of the 14-22 year demographic watching MTV for the first time?

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