Damon Brown Q&A: "What Is Pinterest and Why Would I Like It?"

Photo courtesy of Damon Brown

Damon Brown

Reader Question: "What is Pinterest? And should I use it?"

Damon says: If you're all about scrapbooking, you'll love Pinterest. Pinterest is a popular virtual scrapbooking website with literally millions of users. The free service gives you a board where you can "pin" different images and post your boards for people to see. Each image has a short description and, usually, a web link to where it came from.

If you are surfing the Internet and find an inspiring image, you can quickly pin it on your Pinterest board to save for later and even share with friends via Facebook or Twitter. You can create different boards based on themes, like "Where I’d like to go on vacation" or "My favorite actresses."

Most users not only have fun maintaining their own boards, but also enjoy exploring other people’s boards. You can follow friends and strangers, not unlike Facebook or Twitter, and you can see what they have pinned. You can spend a few minutes or even an hour or two scrolling through all the interesting images, ideas, and links people have posted.

Pinterest boards can be made private, too, but keeping them public allows you to connect with new people, kind of like a social network.

As of now, Pinterest is invite-only, but it’s not as difficult to get an invitation as it was when the service first began in 2010. In fact, if you go to www.pinterest.com right now, you probably will be able to start immediately. And don't forget to follow Grandparents.com at http://pinterest.com/grandparentscom/ and my own boards at http://pinterest.com/browndamon/.

Have a question for Damon? Email us at expertadvice@grandparents.com

Damon Brown is the author of several books, including the best-selling “Damon Brown’s Simple Guide to the iPad” and “Damon Brown’s Simple Guide to Twitter”. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/browndamon and his website.