Pinterest (PINS)’s viral success still has befuddled VCs and entrepreneurs scratching their heads. What is Pinterest? Why do people like it? Even Slate’s Farhad Manjoo took up the question with almost existential seriousness. We decided to user test Pinterest for the benefit of anyone who is still confused about why it’s so sticky. What follows is a stream of consciousness narrative of The Pinterest Experience.
adrianne: damn
adrianne: there is already an adrianne
adrianne: okay it wants me to click a few things
adrianne: but like
adrianne: it’s pictures
adrianne: instead of just names of categories
adrianne: so it just auto-followed people for me based on that
adrianne: hm
adrianne: i think i’m just gonna start out with one board
adrianne: man if you are the kind of person who has to watch a minute long video to figure out how to install a bookmarklet
adrianne: it must take so long to browse the internet
adrianne: start pinning!
ben.popper: i see an abandoned mine
ben.popper: very cool
ben.popper: cows who like jazz
ben.popper: less cool
adrianne: i see a cool tattoo
adrianne: now heading into wormhole of tattoo pinboards
ben.popper: this is just tumblr
ben.popper: there are videos on here
adrianne: like the caption on this one
adrianne: http://pinterest.com/pin/114630752985061337/
adrianne: FOOT
ben.popper: that have nothing to do with objects
ben.popper: or commerce
ben.popper: http://pinterest.com/pin/422281184730969/
adrianne: omg it gave me a portland thing right up top
adrianne: am i being paranoid or is that a deep dive into facebook on the part of pinterest recommendation engine
ben.popper: it gave me this sexy sexy young steve jobs
ben.popper: http://www.computerhistory.org/highlights/stevejobs/video/
adrianne: tumblr and pinterest are like RSS for images
adrianne: OMG
adrianne: http://pinterest.com/pin/234257618087124634/
ben.popper: yes, it’s just image cocaine
adrianne: this reminds me of last night, when i was browsing etsy and thisiswhyimbroke.com trolling for xmas presents
adrianne: it’s great but you really have to keep it to an hour
adrianne: or it starts to get depressing
adrianne: some of these are my friends’ posts
adrianne: all my friends are here!
ben.popper: haha
adrianne: friends frm portland!
ben.popper: who is here?
ben.popper: crafty
ben.popper: kids
adrianne: friends from twitter!
adrianne: i just saw that finger monkey again
adrianne: gotta fix that, pinterest
adrianne: i can’t have a timeline of all finger monkeys
adrianne: i could almost do without the comments
adrianne: okay there’s my old editor from the newport news daily press
adrianne: this is middle america-y
ben.popper: sure is
ben.popper: here is the pinterest team
ben.popper: with the Governor of Iowa
ben.popper: http://pinterest.com/pin/16818198578109218/
adrianne: yours is way techie-er than mine
adrianne: mine is all beautiful and cute things
adrianne: white dresses
adrianne: cashmere booties http://pinterest.com/pin/2814818486769359/
ben.popper: the Gov. of Iowa
ben.popper: is super high tech
ben.popper: he is a cyborg
adrianne: ZIPPER VASE
adrianne: http://pinterest.com/pin/2814818486769354/
ben.popper: mine is pretty dark and manly and android
ben.popper: take that Farhad Manjoo
ben.popper: http://pinterest.com/pin/16818198578099914/
adrianne: like the verizon droid commercials?
adrianne: that does remind me of the verizon droid commercials
adrianne: lame http://pinterest.com/pin/43699058853990342/
ben.popper: this seems to be for people who are very easily stimulated
ben.popper: oooh this
ben.popper: pretty
ben.popper: want that
ben.popper: http://pinterest.com/pin/422281184714352/
adrianne: high school friends
adrianne: high school friends are using pinterest
adrianne: posting about tequila sorbet shot recipes
ben.popper: is this infinite scroll?
ben.popper: the objects never stop
adrianne: nerf doubleshot!
adrianne: mm mushroom soup
adrianne: sweet
adrianne: just clicked on a cute shirt and it took me to the product page at the gap
adrianne: oh no but it’s the wrong page!
ben.popper: yeah a lot of the pins
ben.popper: are straight hyperlinks
adrianne: that was almost perfect
ben.popper: they all seem to have a lot of comments
adrianne: okay i just saw finger monkey #3
adrianne: and a repeat of salt caramel
adrianne: c’mon pinterest
ben.popper: one for each finger
adrianne: no it’s the same pic
ben.popper: I reached the bottom of the scroll!
adrianne: omg
ben.popper: take that
adrianne: no pinterest
adrianne: http://pinterest.com/pin/2814818486771989/
adrianne: haha
adrianne: PINTEREST RACE
adrianne: i must be close
adrianne: i am kind looking at everything though
adrianne: still scrolling!
ben.popper: you notice some have $ tags?
adrianne: no
adrianne: i haven’t seen any
adrianne: aha! bottom!
ben.popper: for example
ben.popper: http://pinterest.com/pin/633387417199120/
ben.popper: $600
adrianne: i’m totally going to use this for xmas shopping
adrianne: i wanna make this
adrianne: http://pinterest.com/pin/66639269455931417/
ben.popper: we should get NT in here?
nitasha.tiku: there is already a nitasha
nitasha.tiku: bullshit there is another nitasha
nitasha.tiku: i am ntiku
nitasha.tiku: where are you guys? how can i find you on this bitch?
nitasha.tiku: WHERE R PRETTY DRESSES? COME TO ME DRESSES
nitasha.tiku: i am gonna click on boy things
nitasha.tiku: just to buck the system
nitasha.tiku: oh you know what’s interesting
nitasha.tiku: it must know that it’s skewing wome-heavy
nitasha.tiku: so the entire top rung of “click a few things” is dudeditor
nitasha.tiku: i don’t want to create any of the boards it suggested
ben.popper: ntiku
nitasha.tiku: oh wait maybe i will use this for recipes!!!!
ben.popper: sounds pretty manly
ben.popper: maybe try
nitasha.tiku: like a good homemaker
ben.popper: ntika
ben.popper: and see what changes
nitasha.tiku: a manly good homemaker
nitasha.tiku: mancipes
adrianne: most of my tumblr dashboard is food porn
adrianne: a great subcategory
ben.popper: this hits the reptile part of your brain
ben.popper: rich food
ben.popper: cute animals
nitasha.tiku: so i got: lace tights
ben.popper: good looking humans
nitasha.tiku: Jamie Beck, who is Jamie Beck? is that a version of a Buble?
nitasha.tiku: a wedding cake, a panda, a pillow
nitasha.tiku: MORE CAKE
nitasha.tiku: yes, trekkies in rainbow hats
nitasha.tiku: ok sold
ben.popper: have you checked out the popular section
ben.popper: http://pinterest.com/pin/140315344609923185/
ben.popper: cheddar bacon pulls
ben.popper: mmmmm
nitasha.tiku: *bows head*
nitasha.tiku: it’s like a pineapple for unhealthy people
Here we conclude the Pinterest experiment. Takeaways: Pinterest is fun. It’s even more fun with friends! What do you think of Pinterest? Let us know in the comments.