Balloonduck: Where Pinterest Meets Twitter To Sate Your Curiosity

We first wrote about Balloonduck back in March. At the time, the social network was accepting invite requests prior to a full launch, so as to avoid empty room syndrome. But today is the big day: Balloonduck has hit 1,500 invite requests and is now officially live.

If you perchance haven’t heard about the service, it’s basically a Pinterest-style Twitter, but with questions being the main content. Users can post a question about anything really — it can extend as far as curiosity will allow — along with a picture, at which point other users can perhaps share their expertise with an answer.

Of course, this is yet another social network to deal with, but I don’t see it as a full-time obligation the way that Twitter and Facebook are. You can simply visit the site whenever you’re a curious cat, and (instead of dying) you’ll likely learn something new from another user.

But better than the idea itself is the user interface. It seems somewhat Pinterest-influenced in that images are large and center stage, despite the fact that most question and answer networks are text-based. This adds a new level of beauty to what could end up looking like a Quora.

Almost all scrolling is also horizontal, which distinguishes the site from other social networks that remain wholly vertical.

Since the beta launch, Balloonduck has also added user profiles, offering space for a picture and a couple lines about where you’re from, how old you are, your gender, and your profession.

Balloonduck is currently accepting invite requests, and will continue to release invites every few hours, so if you’re interested in asking some questions, head over to Balloonduck now and ask for an invite.

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