If you’re a heavy Pinterest user or save a lot of ideas on Instagram like us, you know that things can disappear from the internet at any time for any reason. The Curator macOS app lets you save, curate and browse your ideas offline.
Pinterest and IG are both great for discovering ideas and curating your finds. But there’re a few issues with curating ideas on a platform you do not control like a social website or the internet in general:
One issue is that your saved ideas can disappear at anytime. Pinterest regularly removes pins that "violate" their policies in some shape or form. Instagram also starts removing saved posts after a certain threshold or a post might be removed by its original poster. Things disappear from the internet. If you’re lucky, you’ll find them again on the Internet Archive — if you’re lucky.
Another issue is that you have to be online to browse your curated ideas. This is not a big issue for most people (including myself) but once in while you need to look up something when you are offline.
And lastly, there is the issue of privacy. Every time you save a link to Pinterest, “like” or save a post on Instagram, some data about you is collected by the platform. This is not always a bad thing in and of itself as it helps improve the platform’s ability to suggest content tailored to you. But you don’t always want this. How many times have you saved that one pin and had your timeline immediately get flooded with “similar” pins or had some other website make unwanted suggestions based on what you saved?
The Curator macOS app tries to tackle these issues by letting you save and curate ideas offline. It is not a discovery tool but it lets you curate visual ideas without worrying about them “disappearing” on you.
Inspired by my obsession with collecting tear sheets (print and digital) for almost 20 years!
Gboyega D.