Pin Your Online Life Together

By Melissa Baxley, Editorial Assistant

Social media is continually changing, those who are computer savvy are constantly looking for new user-friendly services to make their life easier. One new website attracting a large number of users allows people to collect and organize ideas as they discover them on the Internet. It’s called Pinterest. 

Pinterest enables people to organize ideas and images from the Internet into categories, or “pinboards,” and share them with other users. According to its website, “people use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.”

Picture a huge tack-board with sticky notes showing interesting websites, DIY, pictures, ideas and much more attached, or “pinned,” to it. Separate boards can be created to keep one’s items categorized and easily accessible. 

Each “pin” contains a short description and a link to its original source. Therefore, when an image on one’s pinboard catches a user’s attention, he or she can click the link and is immediately taken to the website where the content originated. 

The easiest way to create a pinboard is to install the “Pin It” bookmark. By doing this, when one is on a website and finds a picture that catches his or her eye, he or she simply clicks the Pin It bookmark. The page then turns into a bunch of boxes that show all of the pictures, and the user clicks each one he or she wants to add to his or her board. 

Pins can be shared on Facebook and Twitter, and users can register via Facebook Connect or through Twitter. This enables users to “like” or “repin” your pins. 

This is an excellent tool for planning, organizing and remembering interesting things you’ve come across on the Internet.