Fresh freeze frame of Pinterest

The all-time most popular “pin” on the social site Pinterest is a recipe for cheesy garlic bread, TheNextWeb reports, “with over 91,000 pins and 12,000 likes.” Thought you’d be interested in a fresh snapshot of the site that reached 10 million users faster than any other on the Web ever, according to WebDesignSolutions.com. The snapshot is from Repinly, one of those third-party entities that latch on to thriving online communities to add to the experience, a reality or aspect of the social Web that the FTC’s trying to address in its draft revisions to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (or COPPA – see this). It’s like we’re in the Web’s post-Big Bang aggregation period, and the FTC’s trying to get the law to move from addressing mere stars to addressing galaxies too now (wonder what the Web’s version of galaxy clusters will be like).

So what Repinly the Pinterest data gatherer and presenter says people pin the most are Food & Drink, followed by DIY & Crafts, and then Women’s Apparel (the site’s users are 80% female, according to TheNextWeb.com). The most popular boards fall into these categories (starting with the top pick): Home Décor, Art, Design, Women’s Fashion, Photography, DIY & Crafts, My Life, Food & Drink, Film, Music & Books, and Products. And in a sign of how Pinterest makes money, more than 55% of “major retailers” are promoting their pinboards through emailing their customers, eConsultancy.com reports – with that percentage rising to 65% for holiday marketing. So you may find your holiday wreathe on Pinterest.

If all this sounds a bit mystifying, here are some basics: Inc. magazine likens a Pinterest page to the inside of a high school locker door (what gets “pinned” there makes a statement about the owner that s/he intends everybody to see), others to a scrapbook page or bulletin board (Pinterest itself uses the word “board”). [The locker door isn’t entirely fair, since Pinterest is not aimed at teens, but the display aspect works.] People can “like” others’ “pins,” which doesn’t add the photos to their own profile, or “repin,” which does. You can see there’s huge emphasis on photography, collecting, and hobbies, but especially photos, so – in a way – it is to the Web what Instagram is to the mobile platform (though both work on both). Check out this great post in Amy Lynn Andrews’s blog for much more detail.