Basically, Pinterest lets you bookmark pictures on websites and share your bookmarks with others. For example, someone who loves food could bookmark a picture on a food blog of a cupcake, and someone who follows them can click on that link and see the original blog post. Or, someone might have a board of things they find on Etsy that they like, and that person's followers can see it too.
I bookmark pages all the time, but sometimes I forget what things are and don't even bother clicking on it. Now, I can bookmark things and see them visually. Lately, I've been looking at a lot of design blogs. Now, I've started bookmarking pictures I'm in love with so I can go back and look at them later.
For example, this picture I found on Design Sponge today:
This dresser has my name all over it. The colors, the amount of distressed details, everything about this screams "Laura" to me. I must replicate this. Normally, I would bookmark it in Firefox, and then later probably not be able to find it by the name of the blog post. I would be sad, and either have to spend forever going through the Design Sponge archives or just admit defeat. Now, I can see it in my visual bookmark on Pinterest by going to my "Furniture" board and finding it.
What I also love is that I can follow other people who I think have great taste. I can't spend all day searching the Internet for things I'd find awesome, but I can easily scan the latest pinned photos by people that I follow.
Are you on Pinterest? My page is here. I've hardly bookmarked anything so far, but you can be sure that will change in the near future.