Pinterest an "online pinboard".

A while ago a friend of mine asked me if I'd heard of "Pinterest". I hadn't. Though I can see why she thought I might have. The concept is simple. You share ideas and interests with "like minded people". 

I decided to go and have a look around to see what all the fuss was about.

Request an Invite. 

Pinterest homepage

Pardon? I’m more familiar with a self registration sort of social media. I need inviting? Who invites me? That implies some sort of elitism. Does the thin, pretty and devastatingly clever popular girl of the Internet pick people based on their sporting ability? In that case I'll go and write a furious diary entry pretending I never wanted to play Pinterest anyway.

Oh, no, hang on, it would seem that the only qualifying criteria I need is a valid email address. So is this "invite" stuff really any different to registering the regular way? Beyond not capturing my postcode, gender or age demographic? No.

While I sit and wait for my "requested invitation" - like the guest you invited only because you felt sorry for them - I think about the name. Pinterest. A pin board of your interests. Published for everyone to see. Everyone invited, that is. Admittedly there is a vague echo of "internet" in the name but it isn't catchy. It is clumsy. It is also more than a little resonant, to my mind, of Bing. No-one uses Bing. Apart from Chandler in Friends. And Friends is so old that it isn't internet interested. Joey still buys porn. Which, according to my partner and his brother in law, is no longer about videos/DVDs and magazines but *all* about the internet. They'd know I suppose. I have no desire to delve into their hard drives for evidence. Pardon the obvious yet unavoidable pun...

Er, yes, so I don't like the name. The cloak of mystery is about to be unveiled as my invite has arrived in my inbox. It welcomes me to their "little" community. Aw, that is nice. And provides me with a list of etiquette so that the socially inept can keep their noses clean. It is inviting me to create an account and wishes me a "happy pinning".

With that, I’m off to pin and explore this new environment.