Shoddy "journalism" on Sarah's part. Sad that even when called on it she still didn't have the intellectual curiosity to figure out from wayback exactly when the design iterations happened.
Unfortunately, there's little incentive to do so. In fact, Mashable is likely better off if this generates a mini-controversy bringing more people to their site and generating more ad impressions. If, at some point, it were to become a problem, just slap an update on the post, and cash the check from the traffic.
When I saw pinterest first time, I said to me, "Why they call this revolutionary? reform revolution and dropular already did this layout. wtf is going on. this is rip-off"
I saw it only early 2011, Because they got some venture capital. That says a lot.
I started using Pinterest recently, and I think it's an interesting medium - with some extremely boring users, mind. It's a different way of sharing and storing your data, and I think its biggest problem is the lack of interesting profiles/pinboards to follow.
I've started using it to store my "bookmarks" for different products that would otherwise have been stored as text-based bookmark links that break, when the URL changes, or the site is taken down - as was the case with a lot of my bookmarks I transferred to Pinterest. It also makes them an order of magnitude faster to browse.
I don't know if the popular content is anything to judge it by, but all of it is basically awful: cookies, cats, dogs, inspirational weightloss quotes, hot dudes, etc., etc. That doesn't mean that it can't be used for something else. If I were a fashion brand, I wouldn't hesitate to display my collections on the website with links to the products, if available. It looks startlingly similar to the shops at http://goodsie.com, and it could be used as a social version of such.
Right now, Pinterest is in dire need of big names and brands to promote their content for it to be remotely interesting, but, like Twitter in its earlier days, I don't think it's very useful to criticize it for the inanity most people post to it, but how it differs as a digital medium. Twitter messages already existed before Twitter as "status updates" in IM messages, and image-only posts already exists as, say, Tumblr posts, but with the complete focus on images (and videos), the browsing experience is vastly difference.
One problem with Pinterest is also that there isn't a big incentive to use it as a fashion blogger, because it's extremely difficult to monetize compared to a regular blog that can be advertised on in a number of ways. Why should a fashion, style, and trendspotter blog migrate to Pinterest? Maybe they can, I don't know, but it seems unappealing right now. In a blog, it's much easier to lock in fans, because the content is not so easily shared. The same can't be said for Pinterest where it only takes a repin to wrest away control of your pin.
If I were Pinterest, I would take some time to:
1. Think about the ways in which Pinterest can be used
that are completely new and not just repetitions of
what we see at Tumblr and imgur.
2. Attract high-profile celebrities and brands.
3. See if it can be used to disrupt the photo-hosting
industry, particularly to be used with sharing on
Twitter. These pictures are usually really difficult to
browse, and Pinterest takes care of that.
The perception of Pinterest as a soccer mom demographic is really hurting the adoption of the website, and the sooner Pinterest addresses this, the better, because it's basically a taboo for men to sign up at the site at this point. (I'm a guy, FWIW.)
Right now, people, myself a few days ago included, regarded the service as Tumblr photo-sharing in one site, but I don't think it's a good idea to look at sites like these as spin-offs from existing types of content creation. Tumblr is not just a Wordpress spin-off, and Twitter is not just an SMS/IM spin-off, and the sooner we look into the ramifications of Pinterest and its popularity the better.
There are a lot of high profile celebrities and brands on Pinterest. You might not be familiar with them if you aren't interested in high profile celebrities and brands to begin with.
So I have to ask, as someone that hasn't used pinterest, have any suggestions? I'm a guy but whatever, I just want to see some of the interesting stuff that drives certain people to it.
There really aren't any interesting superbrands nor celebrities there - especially for guys - but I found a great Pinterest profile that tries to track all the major brands and celebrities present on the site: http://pinterest.com/pinterestpower/.
I was in fact one of the early adopters of the fluid grid layout after being deeply inspired by Grid-a-licious. I got really upset when I saw you being accused by Mashable.
Pinterest layout is certainly not something that was just invented. Not sure why it's being attributed to them so much. Only because they are the most prominent example of it. I wrote a piece on raising money for web projects through crowdfunding in order to compete with the big guys and to validate ideas: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3687835
"I want all of you to enjoy really shitty journalism and research at one of the most respected tech news blogs around, Mashable."
I have to hand it to Andreas Pihlström for being so civil, but I absolutely disagree with his assessment of Mashable being a respected tech news blog. Mashable might have a decent well researched and insightful article once every blue moon and the rest of the time it is pure dribble of liquid feces.
I find that while people put a lot of emphasis on making an "original" product, a lot of the more successful products tend to be clones. After all, if you come up with something completely original you need to do a lot of explaining to get people to understand it; Whereas if it's based on something they already know, it's much easier for them to comprehend.
There are a few metrics Pinterest has that others similar don't have.
In no particular order,
i) The name is a genius combination of the primary action, and the primary purpose behind it + it's highly brandable / memorable
ii) The facade of exclusive club via requiring an Invite / being able to Request an Invite
iii) They're scraping the web's content, and putting on their own site, thereby reducing / eliminating traffic leaks; I'm undecided if I think it's fair, something doesn't feel right about it - because where some may benefit from their content being copied (you could argue copied->stolen, and probably show damages), many more I believe will not benefit and those are merely feeding the Pinterest ecosystem.
... a few more that I understand but keeping to myself. :)
It's embarrassing what passes for journalism these days.
Worse, this is slander on Sarah's part. The notion that he's a rip-off artist has a distinctly negative impact on his name and good standing as a developer.
Particularly when it's the exact opposite case. Pinterest is more of a clone than Reform.
Is anyone here under the impression that Mashable is journalism? It's a muckraking tech fire hose on par with many tumblogs. Yeah, they have a bigger staff, but I don't think I've ever seen anything come out of Mashable that wasn't editorial or commentary.
Interesting, I just did a grid layout in Twitter's Bootstrap framework and thumbnails look exactly like that. Looks like Bootstrap thumbnails is a Reform Revolution clone :) Oh wait, this reminds me of Polaroids ...
