Like many students, sophomore Karen Swedo first heard about Pinterest through word-of-mouth. When her friend introduced her to the online pinboard site, Swedo said she didn’t like it at first, but said she is now addicted to Pinterest.

Swedo created an account a few months ago and has pinned over 4,000 fashion, hair and makeup ideas to her multitude of boards and said she visits the site for up to an hour on a daily basis.

“I just didn’t really get the point of it, and I thought it was boring, but then I got on for a little while and found a lot of stuff that I liked, and I just started repinning everything,” Swedo said. “I just think it’s really fun to see all the stuff that’s out there.”

Swedo is far from alone in her fascination. In fact, as of February 2012, Pinterest became the fastest website in history to reach 10 million visitors a month. According to Experian’s Digital Marketer Trend and Benchmark Reporter, it is now the third-most visited social networking site, trailing only Facebook and Twitter.

Pinterest’s clean interface and ease of use are some of the many factors that have helped it attain such meteoric popularity. “Pinners,” as users are fondly referred to, can add an image of a cookie recipe, a fashionable dress, an exotic vacation destination and more to one of their pinboards with the simple click of the “repin” button. The invitation-only site removes the mess of scrapbooks and clipping photos from magazines and allows its users to assemble all of their inspirations in one place for future reference.

But Pinterest isn’t just for people who want to find party decoration ideas or gardening tips. Time Magazine, Martha Stewart Living and Whole Foods Market are just a few of the companies that have jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon and created a page to help advertise their content or products and connect with consumers in a more visual manner. Colleges like Butler University are also riding the popularity wave and posting pictures of campus and athletic events to help with their recruitment campaigns.

Swedo said she has noticed this increased interest in Pinterest firsthand.

“I just remember it wasn’t very popular when I first got one, but now pretty much everybody has one,” she said. “I’ve told a lot of people about it and invited them to it, and I know a lot of my friends have done that, too.”

Leslie Bailey, Indy Star correspondent and Pinterest user, said she thinks Pinterest is popular for a number of reasons, including its “DIY” mentality that gives users a sense that they are actually incorporating their pins into their daily lives.

“The Internet can be a really overwhelming place, so I think people like it because they can take all of the images and ideas that inspire them and organize them in one location, making it much more manageable,” Bailey said via email.

The vast majority of images on Pinterest are geared toward the female population, so it’s not surprising that the main demographic of users are women between the ages of 25 and 34. Bailey said she attributes this appeal to the fact that women are naturally more image-and-information driven and are more likely to want to share their finds with friends and other users.

“It’s so common on the Internet to come across something you like or want to try or wish you had. Pinterest is a way to feel ‘like’ rather than ‘lusting’ after these wants, and you can ‘collect’ them, providing even the slightest feeling of ownership,” she said. “Or, you can trace back the images and find out more information on whatever it is you’re looking for. I think there’s also a sense of pride that comes along with having an image repinned – almost like the Internet is validating your taste.”

While new data from Business Insider has surfaced claiming that in April, Pinterest gained users less rapidly and supposedly reached its peak, Bailey said she doubts there will be a time in the near future when Pinterest truly loses its popularity or is superseded by an even more popular social medium.

“Like anything in technology, social media is always evolving, and it’s almost inevitable that there will be a new platform that supersedes Pinterest in popularity – eventually,” Bailey said. “I don’t think it will be anything like Pinterest, though; it would have to be something distinctively different. Pinterest really is just a flavor of the week, although that week could last for several years.”