There are quite a few Pinterest clones out there, and to be quite honest with you, there’s nothing wrong with a clone if it adds value in a fundamentally different way than the service it’s cloning. This is why I’m totally amped to tell you about RankBoards. Yes, I know, it does borrow a bit from Pinterest in terms of large-scale representative imagery, but it brings in a new layer of awesomeness in the form of ranking.
Ranking is something inherent in us, whether we talk about it or are conscious of it. When someone asks you about your favorite tech blogs, you may list off six or seven, but in your heart you know that TechCrunch sits right at the top of that list. (Wink.)
RankBoards takes our natural push to rank things and throws it up onto the Internet. Basically, you create boards in the same way you would on Pinterest, but instead of a collage of categorized items, you’re asked to rank them from best to worst, favorite to least favorite, etc.
You can create private boards that no one can tamper with — these are essentially representations of yourself — or you can create public boards, which is where things get really interesting. Users are allowed to vote on any public boards to change the ranking. So perhaps you feel that Ellen Degeneres is a funnier female comedian than Tina Fey. You have the option to vote for Ellen on that board once a day, and you can vote on any other public board once a day too.
RankBoards also generates a visual history of your activity, displaying all the images you’ve posted (regardless of rank, category, or board) in chronological order. A bookmarklet is also in the works right now, according to founder Glen Moriarti, which should make seamless and instantaneous pinning a much better experience.
RankBoards currently uses Skimlinks to monetize through affiliate links, but the potential here is big if the service can pick up traction. Imagine what marketers and brands could do with the data generated on RankBoards, where all your favorite things are actually organized and ranked from best to worst. That’s about as streamlined as it gets.
RankBoards launched itself out of beta today, so if this seems like something you might get into, head on over to the site and sign up.
