A MALE friend recently suggested I might like a photo-sharing site he had signed up to, Pinterest.

His girlfriend liked it, he said; women like it. What he described was the fast-growing "virtual pinboard" where people post images of elegant pots, gorgeous shoes, beautiful houses and great art works and follow and appreciate each other's taste in nice pics. In 2011, Time magazine listed it in its "50 best" websites of the year.

"I'm not sure I would be very pinterested in that," I said and went into a great deal of detail about my inability to use Facebook for more than saying "hi, you're still alive" to people I haven't seen for decades.

He asked me if I liked to collect beautiful things. I paused for a second to consider the question, and thought of the many people I know who love to gather such items and shook my head. "Not pinterested. It's just not my thing." And I wasn't. My friend nodded. "You're like me, more a word person." But still the name stuck in my head, and since I am, as he said, a word person, I got more and more pinterested. I kept running the name round in my head, in the same way I had the slogans "Incredinburgh" or "Blogmanay". All had got stuck on repeat, like daft advertising jingles.

Naturally, I signed up, in spite of my lack of pinterest. It asked me to pick some images so it could work out my "pinspiration".

I looked through the gallery, and struggled to be pinspired. The only images I liked were of birds, so I clicked on them. I didn't realise I was pinterested in birds.

The site is, pindeed, full of nice pics. But really, in the end, my feelings are as they were when I pinitiated this quest. There's no marketing like an annoying, silly name. Next post on the site, "pincredinburgh".