Is PinPal The Best April Fools’ Joke Of 2012?

Pinterest is having a moment. There's just something about pinning pictures to virtual billboards and sharing your finds with dedicated followers that's irresistible and addictive. Even I've succumbed to the joys of Pinterest, after weeks of resisting and complaining that I didn't understand what all the hype was about.

Pinterest seemed to be one step closer to total world domination earlier last month, thanks to the "debut" of PinPal, a "causal dating service for Pinterest fans." I know what you're thinking...did cyberspace really need a dating site dedicated to Pinterest fans? The short answer is no, it didn't. And the long answer is that it wasn't needed and it didn't actually exist. That's right - it didn't exist. Despite generating some excitement online, PinPal turned out to be nothing more than an elaborate April Fools' Day prank.

PinPal.net claimed to combine "the visual magic of Pinterest with the connecting power of your favorite social networks to help you find your perfect PinPal!" Though supposedly in beta, the site purported to have a limited number of members in San Francisco and New York that were taking it for a test drive.

Here's how it supposedly worked: after signing up, PinPal searched through your favorite social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Klout, and, of course, Pinterest) to find your friends, and friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends. The service alleged that it searched through 3 degrees of separation, then used the "PinPal Match Engine" to conduct a detailed review of the profiles and photos of potential matches. After picking out possible pairings, PinPal supposedly created a private Pinterest board for you and your potential PinPal. Hooking up with a date was as simple as hitting "Like" on the ones that you found most attractive and leaving the rest of the matchmaking up to the faux dating service.

It might sound silly, but PinPal had people fooled. An article on TechieMinx.com wrote about the site before debating whether or not it was a real dating service, and a writer on Business2Community.com posted an article called "PinPal Wants to Use Your Friends to Create a Sex Meat Market" that dissected the "creepiness factor" of the new site. Eventually the truth was revealed by PunkViewsOnSocialMedia.com, the site responsible for the prank. "There's more to PinPal than just being an April Fool's joke," wrote the site in the post that exposed the joke, "we also wanted to show the frequent folly of social media and how the hype machine and a plausible idea can come together to make something seem real, so quickly."

Well played, Punks...well played.