Everyone can make copies but the original has such viral traffic and a loyal community that while they may steal the functions and features I doubt they'll make a dent in the overall usage at this point.

Facebook is the only one IMO that could actually be a threat and the interface of Facebook itself doesn't mesh with the Pinterest type environment, and the crappy Facebook search, which would be severely limiting factors.

I have just found out about Sellpin which allows people to sell via Pinterest.

This could be good.

And now there is Gentlemint (Pinterest for men!)

Not quite the same as pinterest, but there is also centerblog, which is a real PITA.

Are we going to have to add a ton of cruft to our sites to block all of this?

It looks like its in French

But to me it looks like a a normal website and blog, nothing like Pinterest ?

It is in French..

It is a company who own various blog platforms, they place ads around the free ad supported "blogs" run by their "bloggers", their "bloggers" are typically using images from all over the net, one of whom "Petitemimine" has a "blog" [petitemimine.centerblog.net...] consisting entirely of copyright images..she has "found"..just like pinners do..

Each of the blog "posts" is an image..accompanied by the following text..

"gifs et images trouvés sur le net"

( gifs and images found on the net )

each "found" image is accompanied by the text..

"image trouvée sur le net, si elle vous appartient, juste un petit commentaire sympa, si vous voulez son retrait."

( image found on the net, if it is yours,say something nice, if you want it taken down")..

This "chantage" ( blackmail ) is as illegal in France, as it is elsewhere..

The company who own the "platforms" and who are making the money from the ads is.. Tigersun..

The address for complaints about copyright abuse on the centerblogs platform is..
[admin.centerblog.net...]

Writing to them in English should be considered to be legal in France as English is an official language of the EU..but* ...

The parent company is
[tigersun.fr...]

*I'm very busy this weekend, so may not be able to get the time to post a paragraph or two in "legalese" French, that can be copied and pasted to them , by anyone who needs it..but Monday or Tuesday, will have the time..
and if incrediBill is OK with the idea ? ( I'll post a text, with it's "translation in English" ) and where to insert the urls of the original images, for those who may have been affected by centerblog's non policing of it's own terms of service, vis a vis unauthorised use of copyright images on it's blog platform..

Damn those Frenchies (as the Scarlet Pimpernell would say)

Centerblog's Hoster is OVH..pretty sure that they do abide by DMCA..French copyright law is strict.."Petitemimine" is also posting Disney.. Snoopy and Care Bears along with a whole slew of other stuff on another site ( hoster 1&1 Germany )..and claiming it is her original artwork! for download!..

I know how Disney are about copyright..( I worked with them in the past ) and as eny fule kno "do not mess* with the mouse"..

*mess is not the original word..

just found another file sharing (copyright stealing) site... nowpublic dot com (and they have adsense too)

Just found another one called tattoopins com <sigh>

This thread is about sites cloning Pinterest, not about their copyright violations.

If you want to discuss their copyright issues, go here: [webmasterworld.com...]

Facebook's beta WANT IT button is on hold on account of a legal challenge by some small company I've never heard of that claims rights to WANT IT. Good luck.

Ebay's knock-off of the Pinterest format is widely panned.

People at Etsy are starting to complain that Pinterest traffic is scant and barely converts: [pinterest-out.blogspot.com...] and [etsy.com...]

The self-appointed Pinterest gurus urging everyone to jump on the Pinterest gravy train are soon going to find themselves out of a job when their clients realize the so-called gravy runs too thin to make it worth one's time.

With thousands of Pinterest knock-offs out there (some successful), and big-time would-be imitators like FB & Ebay, how long until people have it up the wazoo with lined-up pictures everywhere they go?

The reason so many are copying Pinterest is that the fastest way to accumulate content is by providing a crowdscraping platform. That's quite seductive for lazy webmasters.

I really don't understand why Google is indexing Pinterest and the Pinterest clones:

Excerpt from the Google Webmaster Guidelines:
Avoid the following techniques: ... Scraped content ...

If Google is really serious about their guidelines then they should ban Pinterest and the clones.

Everyone can make copies but the original has such viral traffic and a loyal community that while they may steal the functions and features I doubt they'll make a dent in the overall usage at this point.

And what you think about G+ & Facebook.. defiantly G+ is a copy. Also Microsoft is trying to enter this market using [so.cl ]

So.cl was originally touted as a tool for students rather than a Pinterest copy of any sort. [webmasterworld.com...]

Now it looks like a social search tool combined with Google+.

And don't forget Pasplore whose claim to fame is to crowdscrape the recipe photos WITH the recipes, so that no one ever needs to visit source websites for recipes.

We forgot to mention Bing Image Search. Actually even worse than Pinterest. Bing hotlinks your original image (= using your server's bandwidth = theft of your server resources!)and then (when you click on the image) directs visitors to the original image and not to the webpage.

Indeed, and Bing has a feed feature that is exploited by Pinterest-spam-clones like picstopin. All the images on picstopin, for instance, are vampirized from Bing. There are other clones that do this, picstopin isn't the only one.