For copyright infringement, never before were there 12 million people scouring the internet daily to upload images to a platform like Pinterest. While this infringement may be welcome for some artists, it is unwelcome by others. There is no opinion on the matter that fits every business model, hence the division. This kind of sabotage is done by Pinterest in a scale unprecedented.
There is little doubt that Pinterest will grab not only the content of the source websites, but their traffic as well — while giving the illusion of sending traffic. Their entire linking scheme is geared towards this goal. I do not like my links taken away. Good info, Lucille! Hahah well, as soon as I saw this, I did some research and immediately jumped ship! Keep close eye on your statistic. If it drops, then start looking for the reason. I saw reports from artists that their web site traffic went up because of Pinterest.
Look at yours, what do they say? Determining who is the original and who is a copier is a bit more complex. Authority is one factor, then there is how much value your original page holds in the eyes of search engines is content unique, how many link back to it, etc. Then there is yet another factor: how many web sites that copy your content credit you with the link to your original page. If the number of backlinks is high, it can overturn damage done by higher authority and not so good page metrics.
For search engines, a lot of link attributions going to the same page is a strong indicator that this page is the original and should rank higher.
So when you post your art on Pinterest, be sure to include the link back to its page on your web site. The more repins you get, the more link attributions you will get, the better are your chances to come on top of social networks in search results.
There are indeed lots of permutations to consider! Definitely worth getting to know the referral stats so you can see where the traffic is coming from and what the trends are.
I have a fair background in SEO — mind sharing a link or two? Thanks for picking up on my search question Lucille. Ok, I googled without quotes and got a paid ad for shopbop. The first link to Pinterest was 2 screens down, followed by more links to weheartit. Googling with quotes brought up about the same picture. My search preferences are set to results per page.
You clearly got different results, and that illustrates the modern state of search: no two people are going to see the exact same picture for the same search query. Google works hard to deliver the most relevant results to every searcher based on their locations, search histories, search preferences, and so on. If you are concerned about traffic to handmadereviews. Do you know if they do and what the exact numbers tell you? Now, how likely is it that an average person would search for the exact title of the article?
Similar picture if I add ShopBop to the query. And if it ranks lower, maybe the site needs extra work to make Google see it as a more important source of info then Pinterest or whoever else came on top?
I have received a lot of food for thought. As a pinner my biggest concern was the big bad nasty language of being liable if someone sues over a pin. That was scary enough to keep me from pinning for awhile. The changes in the ToS have been helpful. I am back to happily pinning away. I think of all my pinboards as inspiration without needing to use every wall in my house. They help me remember where something is so I can go back and find it — whether that maybe something I want to buy or create.
I do try to visit the sites of things I pin because I hate clicking through and finding something has been pinned from spam. Great description of using Pinterest for inspiration and reference, reminds me of the way I use Delicious. I guess Pinterest is a visual bookmarking site as much as a social network. Your images are already exposed no pun intended when you post them on the web. If people are that concerned, as one previous poster put it, just copyright every image prior to uploading and have a good lawyer on hand.
Yes, to me exposure pun appreciated! This is the part I love best, seeing those pins collected, gives me new hooks to create work. My field of interest is jewelry, nature, and random things that WoW me. I am having a lot of fun doing this and when I search the internet for material I can easly park it on a board.
When do I pin something already on pinterest I follow the link, just like Lisa, to check if the site is ok. Then I link from the original site. As with all new social network sites you bring your own ethical standard with you.
So I always try to pin the origal picture. In the future I will start sharing my own work as well on Pinterest but in connection with my mood boards.
Natasha and Helga — I had a look at your work and sites — lovely, both of you! Inspiring me to get my out of date links from my blog sorted and my site up this summer! I, too, would like to see examples of misleading links.
Would love to see a post on this, Lucille — with screen captures and proof. So far, the only information supporting this theory on traffic stealing is an article from FineArtAmerica if noone has referred to this yet. Let me know what you guys think of this…. Thanks for sharing Natasha. He makes some good points about copyright — i.
As far as search is concerned, he says that IF Pinterest were to outrank the original image in a search, then it would represent a loss of potential traffic and income to the creator.
I think we would all agree with that, and get concerned if we saw it happening. Nor does he offer any evidence that this is happening. He does cite one example, of an image on FineArtAmerica.
And says rightly that it would be worse for the photographer if someone pinned it, and if that pin outranked his original. So far so good. Even better. Then I checked the original image page to see whether this was because he had disabled pinning to preserve his competitive advantage.
And guess what I found? Apparently they give their photographers the choice of whether to have the button on their pages, and it looks like this photographer has opted in. So in the example given, there not only seems to be no harm from Pinterest, but the photographer is keen to have his image pinned.
Not discretely watermarked as suggested in this article — a good idea for give-away images, by the way! I think of Pinterest as an art gallery where you can browse for what you want and reward those artists that do great work by purchasing their art.
I was an early adopter of Pinterest because at the time, I wrote a budget decorating blog, and Pinterest was an easy and useful way to keep visual track of other websites, artists, designer, etc that I wanted to blog about later. So my experience of Pinterest has always been user and bookmarking focused. From a marketing standpoint, most of the albeit limited research seems to indicate that active pinners are also the people MOST likely to purchase items found via Pinterest.
But let me step away from speaking as a marketing person and tell you more about my direct experience as an avid user. I love Pinterest because it exposes me to all types of products, art, crafts, and ideas that I may not have found on my own. I check out their boards, I see they share my taste and interests, so I follow them. And since I trust their judgement i.
I chose to follow them , I feel confident in trusting their referrals for products, websites, recipes, etc. You know the marketing adage that it takes exposures or touches, as I was taught before someone trusts your brand enough to make a purchase? I think, if you sell online, the benefits from being pinned definitely outweigh the negatives.
As Mark mentioned, the act of being online puts you at risk of having your copyright infringed… I often found my decorating posts completely copied word-for-word on spam blog sites even the post where I discussed my family losing our home to a fire! Thanks Shauntelle, those are very encouraging stats!
And if anything your description of using Pinterest to research purchases is even more encouraging. The social proof aspect makes perfect sense to me. I found this post really informative, covering all the areas that have, lets say vexed me.
My initial impression of Pintrest was that it contravened copyright mine and everyone elses. I hugely enjoyed the experience of looking at all the fantastically creative work that people were doing. Dilemma, to pin or not to pin?
I was dragged in, I loved it, I appreciated the work that people were doing, stuff I may not see otherwise. I liked the fact that people liked my work. Fab, what a lovely community to be part of. Then, bam! I read the post by the photographer who tearfully deleted her account. Thanks Lynn, great decription of the mixed feelings Pinterest evokes!
Pinterest is sort of like a loaded gun… Depending on how it is being used it can be a good thing or a bad thing. Once the image has entered the Pinterest system it is just assumed by most users to be O. Not to mention the loss of potential sales! So, what have I learned from my experience on Pinterest?
Very good advice. Though even in typing that I feel unsharing! We had a long discussion about copyright infringement and, although we still disagree about Pinterest, I revised HOW I pin to do my best to cite credit where credit is due.
It will also make your photos more search engine friendly too. I have just started using Pinterest and am finding it fantastic for visual research. Even more, I think it has sharpened my visual acuteness and understanding of what I respond to.
But since reading your excellent post, I have decided to be a lot more careful of how I post. This might mean I have to stop following some people, as I am too tempted by their unattributed but scrumptious images! No nothing. This is social??! So we do it for ourselves, really, just as we do Pinterest. Thanks so much for your thoughtful comments! A bit of time has passed since I wrote this article, and your comments have helped me to realize the slow shift in the way that I think about and use the site.
Instead of thinking of pinterest as a place to share ideas with people I know, I now use it almost exclusively as a search engine, like google or bing. As you said, people are searching for something specific and visual results can be easier to sift through. Ok — you just made me laugh out loud. One thing…. Pinterest has cured me of this.
Gardening is infinitely better, but who owns a garden these days? So interesting to re-read all of this after such a long time.
Well wha-do-you-know! May I ask you— I actually wonder about you sometimes. I hope so! Still writing — now for a consumer goods company here in the midwest. Having a great time developing brands, new products, web goodness. Thanks for your readership and kinds words of encouragement!
Looking at beautiful images that I might otherwise not see makes it worthwhile to me. I can see a unique flower, fish, bridge, tree, animal, sunset, and almost anything in the world is available to my eyes.
I delight in visuals…. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Email Address:. Home About. Is Pinterest Bad for You? Pinterest is Secretly about Purchases Despite the lack of direct advertisements, according to mashable.
Which brings me, appropriately, to my next section: Where the Men at on Pinterest? But is the way the site is used, and the type of people using it, likely to change?
Since then, most people who pay attention to these sorts of things including us! Here is why Pinterest is The Worst: the site, in its current form, is a slick cesspool of twee hopes and self-absorbed dreams; it channels and encourages the most regrettable impulses of the social web; and siphons content from creative enclaves while offering almost nothing in return. Even by social network standards, Pinterest represents an all-time low in terms of capacity to enable valuable human activities.
This, in a soft light, could be viewed as a kind of generosity. But the focus here is as much on the pinner as it is on that which was pinned. More so than any of its contemporaries, Pinterest indulges an ethos that says: I like, therefore I am.
For the inexorable momentum of life online to be leveraged for adding to the human experience, even as it warps and redefines it.
0コメント