I don't like Houzz and never use it. I like Pinterest better. Or just searching the internet. If you're bored, and hyped up on coffee, search Yahoo in other countries to pull up their magazines, homes, etc.

I gave up on Houzz.com because their search mechanism is terrible. There's no way to narrow a search by adding more specific criteria so you end up with hundreds of pages with tons of repeated pictures. I did sign up for the "This Week on Houzz" E-mail. I like getting that because it's a summary of various topics that I can choose to review or not depending on my interest level. Maybe I just don't understand how to use the site properly. I hope someone will give us some tips on how best to use the site.

BTW, I'm having a similar frustration with Pinterest.com. Everyone touts the site, but I'd rather copy pictures and put them on my PC organized the way I like, rather than saving them to a public site. I guess I'm just too impatient. :sigh:

Oh Dear Lord! Allison, You have ruined me. I have just dragged myself away from first visit to Pinterest. Took what was meant to be a quick look on decor and then over to Gardening where I got absolutely lost in gorgeous pics. You have done it now!. Stay far away oakley, if you value your time!!!

ROTFL, Leahcate.

Fun2BHere, the searching on Houzz was what bothered me too. I find myself doing "Everything" glances first, then narrow it down to "Home." But if I'm looking for something in particular, I'll type a word into the search box.

Leah, Pin already got me! lol. Allison, that's a great idea. But what exactly would I type in for the search?

I'm really mad at Country Curtains for not allowing us to pin! I've found independant pictures of their curtains and when I click on it they say I'm not allowed.

Fun, two things I like about Pin is when I'm online I can just click on my page and see my inspiration pictures at a glance. I also look at friend's pictures to see what they like.

Now tell me how two strangers started following me? How did they find me? I just began it so I only have 3 followers, but two of them I don't even know!

oakleyok I think that the city search there is mainly used to find architects and designers in your home city.
I use the search box to find vintage and rustic photos and get very good results. Also, try their app. I love it.

I don't do Houzz. I like Pinterest, but don't do much there other than look. I rarely pin. I do keep an inspiration file - paper file and I have one on my computer where I store pics. As much as I like to look at Pinterest, I've not gotten into pinning.

tina

Oakleyok, I have a stranger following me, too, on Pinterest which is really interesting since I don't have anything pinned. LOL!!!

Houzz doesn't do it for me, never has.

And, I'm another one not totally feeling the love for Pinterest. I still want to save things in folders of my choosing on my computer, organized and labeled my way and adding the Pin is another set of steps. Not really sure what it gets me other than having things in the cloud and preserved in case of a crash, but I do regular backups anyway so that's not an issue. As for nosing around there and finding things I like, that's a total time suck and I avoid it - mostly!!!

My life is getting way too crowded with 'things to follow' frankly. I mean, I like all of you :-), really! - and I like people I've met at other sites over the years, but I don't WANT to follow anyone and have one more thing to keep up with ! I like certain blogs but it's reached a point of over saturation for me. Too much visual stimulation, too much,'why didn't I think of that', too much time lost on virtual activity, not real activity, KWIM?

Now, the REAL stuff - that's a kick. We went to Asheville a couple weeks ago and I was able to meet an internet friend that, I've 'known' since 2000, have lunch with her, go toodling around a cute little town.... totally worth it. And that kind of opportunity comes from sites like this, where we not only post pictures (personal or inspirational) but we talk to each other, ask and answer questions, share who we are. Pictures are great, but it's the people that make my internet time worthwhile. Pictures I can get on my own from searches (love the tip about searching in other countries - thanks Alison!) and the occasional swing through Pinterest.

dlm, I've been on message boards since 1995 and I made three really good friends back then and we all talk in email every day. We call each other all the time, and have met at certain places. It's like I hand picked my best friends.

The neat thing though is when we first met on a message board back then, we VERY much disagreed over a topic, but we kept on chugging until we got bored with the topic and discovered we really liked each other!

I like both, for different reasons.

1. I am in LOVE with Houzz! My remodel would not be in the great place it is without it (and of course the help from all you here!). My contractor uses Houzz too and it helps my "visions" make more sense to him - since I'm not so great at explaining what I want in his terms ;).
I usually start a search in the photos section from the options (like eclectic home office for ex) and start to narrow it down from there. I get sucked in for hours finding ideas that lead to articles with great tips and adding things to my Ideabooks. Plus they have products - I sourced my carriage doors, ceiling fan, and paint colors for my office from Houzz.

2.Pinterest is perfect for party decorating ideas and recipes imo - Banilla sandwiches were my most recent find - very fun! I love to bake and they have some great shots of inspiration on packaging and new treats to try. Some decor stuff - but I really find that the stuff I like is from Houzz anyway or a blogger I follow.

I agree that it's hard to keep track of all these different sites and blogs - but these two are probably my favorites. I think I lose a good few hours each week on them ;)

Here is a link that might be useful: Dalma's Ideas

I went to Houzz and Pinterest once before and didn't understand what I was supposed to do at either one. After reading this post this morning, I went back to Pinterest and ended up printing around 10 recipes...and I don't even cook! I'm still not sure what I'm supposed to do there if I'm interested in decorating ideas. Do I collect pictures from other places on the internet and use Pinterest as a place to collect all of these pictures or am I supposed to search through Pinterest to get some decorating ideas? If I want to find decorating ideas on Pinterest, how do I go about doing that? When I went there earlier, there was an interesting recipe on the main page and that led to another recipe, which led to another. Is that how you do it with the decorating ideas?

What I find frustrating about Houzz is that they have all these pictures of gorgeous homes and so little info about what is actually in the picture. So I see a front entry door or a remodeled bathroom that I like. So what kind of faucet is that? Who makes that lamp fixture? Where can I get a door like that? Usually nothing about manufacturers or even who sells or installs it.

Lee....that is my beef with Houzz too.....no info on the products.

I like Houzz a lot, don't understand the issue? If I look up Black Kitchen Cabinets, I get lots -then select traditional-, make a folder called Black Kitchen Cabinets, save the ones I like.
Pinterest seems more random to me, with much less designer input, lots of dead links.

Houzz is okay, but I much prefer here. Their forum is boring.

I love Houzz for their pictures and ideas. I've spent hours looking through their cottage pictures both inside and outdoors, have gotten some great ideas for my own home.
When I was considering siding for my exterior, pictures on Houzz helped me see the different ways others had made their siding choices.

I loved Houzz several years ago when there were fewer pictures that were more carefully curated. Now, there are too many to be useful! The search function is terrible, even when you "know" how to use it.

I've never understood the appeal of Pinterest.

I forgot I did this topic! I rarely look at houzz anymore.

It's almost Pinterest Season for me. I like to look at their Christmas decorations because I've gotten a lot of good ideas.

I haven't pinned anything in ages.

I am the exact opposite. I really don't get pinterest, other than a place to store pictures instead of bookmarking.

But when I want to look at pictures of something I am thinking of doing, houzz is my go to place.

My husband is a very visual person. When I make a suggestion about something I want to do in the house, he always says I need to see a picture. So, I used to keep all my décor mags so I could go through them and find something similar to what I'm thinking to show him. Now, I just go to houzz and search and find tons of pics.

When planning a bathroom remodel (which still hasn't happened!), I used houzz to see how the color combos I had in my head would look in real life and to show DH.

I love houzz. I don't use it for specific product recommendations. Just for visual guidance on a style, or color combo I am thinking about.

I pin almost daily. Jill you are right - it is a place to keep things you want to keep - rather than bookmarking. You can categorize your pins. I never, ever go to houzz unless someone here links a pic. I love Pinterest and am not looking for designer input. Many of the blogs I follow - the authors pin and I enjoy looking at things they pin. Occasionally I do search within Pinterest when looking for certain things.

I do like Pinterest as visual bookmark site. I have found you need to check before you bookmark if you don't want to go on a scavenger hunt when you want to check the details later. Many links take you to just the photo or someone elses blog that just happened to share it from yet another site on their blog. Because of this, I search until I find the origination of the photo and then I pin from there.

I love Pinterest and find it more useful than Houzz. Houzz has some good features--the idea books are great, and it's also good for searching particular rooms or styles.

But Pinterest has far more variety -- many more things other than homes or decorating, and the more you use it, and follow boards, the more the fed content is geared toward things you like. It's a more flexible tool, and it's improved a lot from when it first appeared.

I think it's garbage... Beyond the horrible search, it is pointless.
We are trying to build a house. This site provides nothing but roadblocks to showing ideas to our builder. They go through hoops to prevent you from printing an image, sending an image, or anything else.
They compel you to sign up, which immediately started a carpet bombing of spam emails (I, of course, used a burner email...) .
If I want to show something to my builder, he also has to join... An
evil pyramid scheme to send spam emails to as many victims as they can.
Now, I am convincing my wife to stop using it. She likes decorating ideas...? She finds them elsewhere. Or I simply do a "PrintScreen" to a paintshop, and crop.

Congratulations... Your intentionally hostile design encourages me to find a way to steal the pictures. Nice job.

"Garbage, pointless, evil, hostile" ... My goodness, it's JUST a website!

It's hard to track an item of interest on the sites when they simply send you to another person's page instead of the item's fabricator. That's why the Google Image search is so very necessary.

If you don't want to printscreen which can be very cumbersome and time consuming for capturing an image, the very best way to capture images is to use the Snipping Tool on Windows 7, however, beware because many of us are being offered the FREE Windows upgrade to Windows 10 which will delete the Snipping Tool. For me, it's the one feature that has made capturing info easy. I will not be upgrading to Windows 10.

http://www.capture-screenshot.org/snipping-tool/

Beverly thank you for that heads up! Didn't plan on accepting the upgrade but that little tidbit just sealed the deal - or rather prevented sealing it!

Pinterest is great. You create boards and pin things you want to save on them. You follow people or topics you like to get more pins in your feed. It's normal for strangers to follow one another that's how it works. You can create private boards that nobody can see if you want. I created a total look book for my new house on Pinterest and it's been really helpful. There are some work arounds to save things that don't have pin buttons.