By Jordan Valinsky 5/10 10:11am

pinterest ruins lives

Part of the problem. (Photo: Pinterest)

‘Pinterest Stress’ Is Ruining Your Mother’s Life

So, there’s a very real illness that’s destroying the lives of mothers everywhere. It’s called “Pinterest stress,” and it reportedly affects 42 percent of mothers. A crippling condition that is yielding a lot of sad BBs in the world, ”Pinterest stress” leads people to worry that their pins are not crafty or creative enough (also known as the Brit Industrial Complex?).

Touted as an exclusive survey by Today, a once-popular morning show that nursing homes use to override the bleak silence of near-death, the results show that nearly half of the 7,000 mothers they talked to claim they stay up until the wee hours of the morning clicking, repinning and saving pins in a mad attempt to recreate intricately crafted centerpieces from Michael’s. Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 3/14 8:49am

Linkages

(Photo: flickr.com/86979666@N00)

Booting Up: It’s Now Easier for Developers to Sell Themselves to the Highest Bidder

This week Pinterest introduced a web analytics platform, while Twitter stepped up its ad insights game with more details for marketers. Really looking forward to seeing even more wedding dress ads. [Ad Week]

Twitter has also reportedly acquired the music delivery service We Are Hunted and plans to build a standalone music app. Can we get some Vine soundtracks going, here? [CNET]

To face Ellen Pao’s gender discrimination claims, Kleiner Perkins has hired the same guy who represented Facebook against the Winklevoss twins. [Wall Street Journal]

Blame Google+ for the fact that you are losing your Google Reader, effective July 1. [The Next Web]

A startup called DeveloperAuction has raised $2.7 million to build a site where talent can literally auction themselves off to the highest bidder. sign up and if they’re picked as one of the site’s top 150 job seekers in a particular month, be deluged with interview offers from companies. That’ll do wonders for the Valley’s skyrocketing salaries, sure. [VentureBeat]

Chrome honcho Sundar Pichai is now going to lead Google’s Android team, as well. Former Android boss Andy Rubin is going to stay at Google and do something that maybe involves moonshots. [Google]

By Kelly Faircloth 3/13 2:30pm

Screeds

STARE INTO THE CHAOS

The Internet Wants to Make Me a Deranged Bridezilla

A newly betrothed Business Insider writer has a bone to pick with Facebook: Getting engaged ruined the social network for her. “Just like that, everything changed,” she reports. “Facebook knew I was betrothed. And it didn’t waste any time clogging up my news feed with ads” related to weddings, weddings and also weddings.

A few relatively-relevant ads are hardly going to make my Newsfeed any junkier than it already is. (Spotify! So-and-so shared a link! So-and-so likes Sprint!) As a newly-engaged woman, however, I’ve found the deluge of Facebook ads is only part of the story. The Internet and its advertisers, it seems, are all conspiring to make me a cuckoo-crazy-crackers bridezilla.

Here’s a brief guide to what happens once you make it official: Read More

By Patrick Clark 2/22 7:54am

Linkages

(Photo: NJ Governor's Office/Tim Larsen)

Booting Up: Nevada Legalizes Online Gambling, Is New Jersey Next?

Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest were hacked this week, after a security breach at customer-service provider Zendesk allowed a hacker to access user email addresses at the three social media companies. [Wired]

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s book marketing plans include “Lean in Circles,” in which women study Ms. Sandberg’s curriculum for career success. [NYT]

Twitter cofounder Ev Williams talks about when—and when not—to sell your company. [Medium]

Nevada became the first state to legalize online gambling. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie may sign a law legalizing Internet gambling in his state as early as next week. [The Washington Post]

If you’re a “startup junky,” what are you really addicted to? [PandoDaily]

By Patrick Clark 2/21 8:12am

Linkages

300px-Pinterest_home_page

Booting Up: Pinterest Raises $200 Million at a $2.5 Billion Valuation

Pinterest completed a $200 million funding round that values the company at $2.5 billion. Valiant Capital Management is said to have led the round, with previous investors Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners and FirstMark Capital also participating. [AllThingsD]

IBM is making a push into mobile, and plans to provide customers with software, data and security services on mobile devices. [NYT]

Calling all youth correspondents: the social network Pheed is said to be gaining in popularity, especially with teens. [Forbes]

Facebook isn’t the only tech company to catch heat for using stock option deductions to avoid paying corporate taxes. The Center for Tax Justice says LinkedIn has used the deduction to avoid paying federal taxes for the last three years. [New York Post]

Eduardo Saverin talked about life after the Facebook, the challenges faces the social media company he helped found, and his decision to move to Singapore. “No, I did not rescind my citizenship for tax purposes,” is what he says. [WSJ]

By Nitasha Tiku 2/15 10:50am

How White Was Your Valley

Screen shot 2013-02-15 at 10.06.00 AM

Among Internet Users, Black People Use Instagram and Twitter More Than White People

The Pew Internet & American Life Project released a new survey on the demographics of social media users yesterday.  The nonprofit, nonpartisan “fact tank” says its findings are the “first reportable” survey that it’s put out comparing whites, African-Americans and Latinos on Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr.

But if you’ve been paying attention to shifting demographics, the results shouldn’t surprise you. Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 1/11 3:40pm

And Then He Pinned Me

Screen Shot 2013-01-11 at 3.17.25 PM

Cops Now Pinning Mugshots to Pinterest Because the Police Can Be Aspirational Too

Few social networks are as adroit at triggering man’s aspirational impulse as Pinterest. Of course, different people covet different things. In the case of police departments in fourteen cities–including Pottstown, Penn., Kansas City, Mo. and now Philadelphia–Buzzfeed reports that cops are using Pinterest to advertise what want to catch: criminals. Read More

By Jessica Roy 12/28/12 12:25pm

Faux Outrage

(Photo: Instagram)

Reports That Instagram Lost 25 Percent of Active Users Are Greatly Exaggerated

“Rage Against Rules,” declares a bolded headline in The New York Post today, which collected stats from App Data to paint a portrait of a flailing Instagram. The Post claims that following the terms of service debacle, which supposedly had both normals and celebrities fleeing the app, Instagram’s total active users has plunged 25 percent.

The app reportedly peaked at 16.4 million daily active users the week of Dec. 17, but has decreased to 12.4 million as of Dec. 27. Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 12/07/12 9:00am

DIY Don'ts

50 Photos

Only someone on a five-day meth binge can muster this level of attention to detail.

50 Pinterest DIY Projects You Are Definitely Not Doing This Christmas

The holidays are upon us! Time to trim the tree and drink some cocoa. For crafty types, though, this is basically the Olympics. This is the main event, the reason they’ve trained so hard for so long. Pinterest is therefore flooded with impossibly intricate, over-the-top DIY projects.

But other than a few twee over-achievers, no one is actually going to try these. You will be too busy drinking eggnog until you fall over and combing Kmart for last-minute gifts. Read More