Pinterest Search Results Do Reveal Problems AND Revelations
February 28, 2012
The last two posts were about Pinterest.
Pinterest - Quick Tips to Become a "Pinner"
Pinterest The Huge Concern
The concern all around by artists and makers is proper attribution of their work. By attribution, I mean the name of the artist and possibly a link to their website. To investigate this problem, I searched for my work on Pinterest.
I found my work on Pinterest under searches for "Harriete Estel Berman" and "harriete-estel-berman". Not all images had my name in the description. Most of the images don't even have any description, let alone a full and accurate description. Very few included links to my website. A lot of the images were from blogs, photo-sharing site., or online interviews but most did not link back to my website or this blog, ASK Harriete.
The impact: visibility for my work, but not necessarily traffic for my website or blog.
While this doesn't make me happy, I am not sure how it hurts me or my work. It isn't as good as it could be, but there are many other things that could be worse. And there are some serious issues yet to be addressed.
A BIG CONCERN PUBLICLY discussed is the source of the images.
Investigating and experimenting, I have made a discovery. If you keep clicking on a Pinterest image it goes back to its original source, maybe.
- The first Click goes to the person who last pinned the image.
- The next CLICK goes to where ever the person found the image.
- So the source of the image can be discovered after all!
OOPS...the unfortunate aspect is that this doesn't work all the time. Sometimes clicking on an image goes back to an empty Google search box with no original source. So I would like to recommend that if you find an image on Google Image Search, try to find an original source for the image.
Taking the image directly off Google makes Clicking back to the original source for the image impossible. Or at least that is what I think is happening since it goes back to a blank Google page with no information, and no links or resources.
another problem:
If people download your image, then upload the pinned image from their computer, there is no source for the image.
What about screen capturing an image and then creating an image on their computer to upload? There is no source for that either!
I think an important issue is how we, the arts community will offer a better description and acknowledgment for the images, with possible photo credit and additional information. We can't complain about others unless we take responsibility for ourselves.
Are you carefully posting images as a resource for others with complete information?
Are you carefully posting your own work with a complete description including your own name? That was a real shocker when I realized that including my name in the description was necessary because people might repin the work. Thus my images could be traveling far from my own pinboards.
Stay tuned. I have more information about Pinterest and options.
This post was updated on March 11, 2022.