Long-time darling of the home and cake decorating set, Pinterest has announced plans that seem intent to take it off the social network track – at least at first glance.

Who likes likes?

‘Likes’ are officially gone from Pinterest.

As single-click feedback mechanisms, likes, hearts and thumbs-up are associated with social media.

Pinterest has declared that it wants to shift its image away from being a social network, so this move seems a step in the right direction, but is it?

Saving saves

Pinterest claims that streamlining the options for interacting with pins leads to greater overall engagement. It is reasoned that the ‘Like’ function had too much cross-over with the ‘Save’ function (formerly known as ‘Pin It’).

Scrapping ‘likes’ clarifies the purpose of ‘saves’ and is reported to lead people to click ‘save’ on significantly more pins than before.

Socially anti-social

But doesn't that make Pinterest more social?

Since last November, ‘likes’ have been saved on a private profile tab, invisible to other users. Saved pins, however, go to publicly visible boards.

So, anything that increases the number of 'saves' makes total user activity on Pinterest more publicly visible and potentially viral. That’s a recipe for social activity.

Where to now?

Scrapping ‘likes’ could irk users who track upvotes as a metric. Still, any up-swing is the number of pins saved could balance it.

Regardless of whether it allows ‘likes’, Pinterest still needs people to interact and connect via its platform.

Attempts to distance itself from the social media moniker may be motivated more by a want to avoid comparisons to Facebook.

If Pinterest can achieve that, it may start making gains a space it can own. Combined that with evolving e-commerce ideas, Pinterest may be on an anti-social winner.

What do you think of Pinterest's latest tinkering? Let us know in the Comments.

Copy Transmission is a Melbourne-based agency :: Better Brands. Loud & Clear.