Editor’s Note: Pete Cashmore is founder and CEO of Mashable, a popular blog about tech news and digital culture. He writes regular columns about social media and tech for CNN.com.
Story highlights
Unique visitors to Pinterest grew 400% from September to December 2011
Pinterest drives more visitors to third-party websites than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn
It's a visual social network that organizes by topic and lets you reshare with one click
Pinterest is the breakout social network of 2012, but even technology addicts could be excused for missing its rise to success.
The web-based “pinboard,” which launched almost two years ago, barely got a mention on Silicon Valley news sites until six months ago, when early adopters suddenly realized that a site with millions of monthly users had sprung up almost unnoticed by the tech press.
That’s because Pinterest didn’t take the usual route of Web-based startups: romancing early adopters and technology journalists before attempting to “cross the chasm” to mainstream adoption. Instead, Pinterest grew a devoted base of users – most of them female – who enjoy “pinning” items they find around the Web. While clothing, home decor and recipes dominate the site, inspirational quotes and humor are also