Jan
30
2012
The Pinterest MISS: What "Authorization" Do You Use? Does It Matter?
In my post the other day, Pinterest and the Power of Social Bookmarking: Tag Yourself (Web Design is Dead) looked into why I think Pinterest is a force to be reckoned with. (ref) And then the next day I wrote about the "authorization" issue: Authorization Backlash: Why Facebook and Twitter Account Authorization is Faltering. Okay so you add those two posts together, mix in some interesting discussions on various LinkedIN groups and you end up here. Pinterest is wonderful and simple and missing an opportunity to promote OPEN AUTH from an early grave. Let’s examine the process of opening a Pinterest account.
1. Visit Pinterest.com
Ah, an "invite only network," I’ve heard about these.
2. CLICK: Request an Invite. (Or ask a friend for an invite. If you know someone on Pinterest they can send you a personal invite.)
3. Receive an invite.
4. Begin JOIN process. (Are you excited yet?)
Log-in screen has two options. This is where two issues come up.
FIRST: Please Pinterest ADD ClaimID or some other Open Auth options. PLEASE!
SECOND: Many people will not join, and I didn’t join initially in my first three visits to someone’s Pinterest link, because I don’t want to give any app or site access to post on my Facebook wall or tweet on Twitter for me. And of course some of these "Log-in As" handshakes go way further than necessary.
Some of the requests seem more like: ALLOW: Access to my wall, to post as me, to post on my friend’s walls as me, to give out all my demographic information to anyone who asks or pays… ALLOW / DON’T ALLOW.
So maybe, just maybe the world’s "almost billion-person social network" has got a trust problem. (Ya think?) I’m sorry, but my immediate reactions to these screen is Don’t Allow Facebook access to anything. And everytime they make some changes to facebook privacy settings is my potential employer going to see all of my timeline? Like back to when I was born? NO WAY.
It’s part of why there has been a backlash against Facebook in general. But Facebook is not going anywhere, or at any risk of being unseated as the king kong of social networks. BUT, Pinterest on the other hand, has a lot to gain from LOGIN-USING-FACEBOOK or TWITTER. Pinterest’s entire purpose is to reshare you PINS with Facebook or Twitter. AND ONE MORE BUT… Couldn’t Pinterest give us a few more OPEN choices for creating an account? Isn’t OPEN AUTH/OPEN ID worth the effort?
The primary reaction to my Pinterest and Authorization posts was, "I won’t give Facebook any more than I have to. And selling or authorizing my Facebook account to access to other applications is down right offensive."
@jmacofearth (also seen on Google+: jmacofearth)
permalink: https://uber.la/2012/01/pinterest-miss/
For further reading: Pinterest Funneling Traffic to Retailers – Infographic (WebPro News)
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Check out these other posts about learning social media:
- What You Capture and What You Share Is What You ARE (Do You Listen to the Sound of Your Own Voice?)
- Authorization Backlash: Why Facebook and Twitter Account Authorization is Faltering
- Trippin Mobile Through the Social Media Networks: facebook, linkedin, txt, phone, email
- Pinterest and the Power of Social Bookmarking: Tag Yourself (Web Design is Dead)
- What’s Your Twitter Language? What Do You Tweet? Fun & Easy Way to Find Out
- How Entrepreneurs Succeed: Learning the Hard Way That An Idea Is Not a Business
- The 11th and 12th Disciplines of Social Media: Pinterest and Instagram
- The ROI of Social Media – It’s Easy, Right? (return on investment)
- My Dream for You; How Social Media Can Change Your Life – This Is What I Do
- How to Get Useful Business Information Out of Twitter: Hashtags for Social Media Research
- The Twitter Bubble; Don’t Let Your Followers Fool You Into Feeling Influential