The Conversation published my article on Pinterest’s secret ingredient.

I argue that Pinterest’s value proposition for users is more than simple social bookmarking or even its elegant implementation of the jQuery Masonry interface. It comes down to how sharing works. Simple sharing is just giving one thing to someone else. Complex sharing involves comparison and contrast. As the site’s original investor, Brian Cohen, argues, Pinterest excels at comparison and contrast, and the use-cases that go along with it. Pinterest has become very popular for wedding planning for just these reasons. The planner collects pins to have a range of ideas and options for individual use, to solicit the opinions of others, and ultimately to have a single place to return to for reference. In other words, we’ve added “come-with-me” to “me-first”.

Read the full article @

Rintel, S. (2012, March 22). A new way to share – why Pinterest isn’t just another social network. The Conversation (Online).

Also syndicated in:

 Rintel, S. (2012, March 25). Why Pinterest isn’t just another social network. Smart Company (Online).

 Rintel, S. (2012, March 23). Pinpointing Pinterest’s secret recipe. Technology Spectator (Online).