If you’re in the mood for procrastinating, Pinterest is your network. The visual platform makes it easy to scroll endlessly through thousands of inspiring images.
However, if you’re trying to run a specific search, that’s a bit trickier. Pinterest relies on users’ anecdotal comments on individual pins in order to provide search data.
For example, a search for the phrase “vegetarian dinner ideas” yields only eight results, while “I wish I thought of this!” results in hundreds of pins.
That’s where WePin comes in. A third-party Pinterest service created by the mysterious Lady Pinsalot, the user directory organizes pinboards to make search data more reliable.
“On Pinterest, you have to rely on people’s descriptions to find what you’re looking for in search, and half the time it’s just something vague like ‘love this recipe!’ that doesn’t tell you anything,” Lady Pinsalot, who declined to give her real name, told the Daily Dot. “I created WePin to solve some of these problems and make it easier for people to find and follow fellow pinners with related interests.”
A vegetarian, Lady Pinsalot first encountered the problem while searching for dinner ideas.
“For every ‘vegetarian dinner ideas’ board, you’ll find half a dozen named something like ‘veggie nom-noms.’ That’s cute but not so useful for searchers.”
Lady Pinsalot, a self-described “social bookmarking addict,” said she took a page from Delicious, a bookmarking service that allows users to identify their links by a string of fixed tags. The site, which launched on Feb. 21, allows both tags and categories.
“Categories are a good way to get a general idea of a pinner’s interests, but it takes tags to really make it easy to drill down and find what you’re looking for. After all, a person who pins bacon recipes and a person who pins tofu recipes are both pinning about food, but in most cases they’re pinning for very different audiences!”
Joining WePin is free. Just click “Add Listing” in order to include your own Pinterest profile in the directory.
Right now, the directory is all the site has to offer, but Lady Pinsalot has big plans for the future.
“In the future I’m hoping to add featured listings, more customizable profiles, and Pinterest tutorials to the site,” she said. I’ve also had a few users express interest in a forum for Pinterest-related discussions.”
Photo by Jeffrey Beall