Whether you like Pinterest or not, one thing you can’t deny is that the site has taken off like gangbusters. You’ve heard all of the talk about its growing userbase and the sick amount of referring traffic it’s sending to sites, but the top story when it comes to Pinterest is the fact that it’s mostly popular among a female audience.

It took me a while to understand what was so interesting or addictive about Pinterest but I’m finally starting to understand the power of its curation potential. When I took a look at the top ten users on Pinterest I wasn’t surprised that six of them were women and three of them were either an official Pinterest account or were accounts by one of its co-founders. That leaves one person in the top ten that doesn’t fit that criteria and lo and behold, he’s a dude.

Meet the #10 user on Pinterest, Mike Dew. Dew is a graphic designer working out of Philadelphia, and the best I can tell he’s not an employee at Pinterest. Here’s how he describes himself:

I’m more than simply a graphic designer, however. I’m a conceptually driven creative problem solver and a strategic thinker. My focus is always on pinpointing the perfect solution for any design problem, regardless of size, style or complexity, while walking the tightrope of exceeding client expectation and pleasing the target audience.

Since he has an eye for all things awesome, he has found himself quite a following on Pinterest, to say the least. Dew has an astonishing 683,221 followers on Pinterest. He must have an even bigger following on Twitter, right? Nope, he has a private account and 274 followers. What makes Mike Dew so interesting on Pinterest is that he clearly likes to neatly organize the cool stuff he finds on the web, as you can tell by his profile on the site:

Dew has pinned 3,526 things in categories such as; Inside, Outside, Sustenance, Design, and Awesomeness. His “Inside” pinboard of links consisting of cool interior design has 146,7423 followers alone and repins out the wazoo:

The next time you think that Pinterest is just for women, remember that it’s simply not true. Pinterest is for people who focus on putting really pretty stuff on it, organized in a way that others can easily consume, just like a graphic designer and expert in user experience does on the web like Mike Dew.

Even The Next Web is on Pinterest, why not check out what we have going on?

According to Google, Angry Birds has been the most popular Halloween costume search up until this month. The game is now facing another feathered adversary.

The company shared these hard-hitting insights today, explaining the bird-brained nature of this years Halloween trends:

This year seems to be about the battle of the birds. Searches for [angry birds costume], based on the game phenomenon that has so many of us addicted, have been steadily rising in 2011, and we’re seeing 10 times more search volume this year than last. But as of mid-October, the Angry Birds were overtaken in search by [black swan costume]. The Darren Aronofsky ballet drama seems poised to be the most popular costume idea by All Hallows Eve, with related searches for everything from [black tutu] to [black corset]. Some are even looking to be the alter ego [white swan].

The lure of being an Angry Bird for Halloween can’t be just a kid thing, since most people I know play the game religiously on a multitude of platforms including iOS, Android, and even Google+. However, as Google points out, the serious adults amongst us want to be a Black Swan, made popular by the Oscar-winning film of the same name.

For the kids, it appears as if the big winner of Halloween 2011 will be a pig costume, made popular by the cartoon “Olivia“.

Some other interesting tidbits Google dug up from its trends:

• Everyone has a sweet tooth this time of year, but [candy corn] remains the undisputed king of people’s cravings. In the last 30 days, search volume is nearly twice as high for [candy corn] than for other candy choices
• Per capita, Alabama is searching the most for [candy corn] this year
• Although overall in 2011 [lady gaga costume] leads [nicki minaj costume] in search volume, right now they’re neck and neck

What are you and your children dressing up as for Halloween? Tell us in the comments. Maybe Google trends doesn’t actually reflect which costumes will be worn the most.

Boomerang for Gmail lets you control when you send and receive emails.

Love It: Scheduled sends. Get email when you need it. No more cluttered inbox.

Hate It: It’s 3rd party, so you can’t get it via the Chrome Extensions gallery or Firefox Addons site.

Overall: 5/5

The Details

When I woke up this morning, I had 41 emails over 5 hours. Needless to say, I get a lot of email. While quite a bit of it is easily enough dealt with and dismissed, I have a fair amount that I don’t need until days after the fact or simply can’t handle at that time.

What I need is a better option than an overstuffed inbox and cluttered folders where I’ll forget what’s in there. Boomerang can do just that:

Boomerang is a plugin that fits beautifully into the default Gmail UI. Let’s say that you get a message, but don’t need to have it handy until later. All you have to do is select the Boomerang tool and tell Boomerang when you need to see the message again.

As you can see, there are a few default options for Boomerang, but you can also enter a specific time and date. For me, this is the real selling point. When dealing with application reviews that are under an embargo for a set amount of time, it’s really easy to lose track of what needs to happen and when.

Another great use for Boomerang is scheduled sending of email. How often have you sent a message at some strange hour, only to be concerned that it will get lost in the shuffle? If you know that someone will need to see your message for an 11 am meeting, you can schedule your message to be sent a few minutes before, no matter their time zone.

Whether for personal use or business, Boomerang is simply a great idea. Here are some instances where Boomerang might just make your day:

• Paying bills on time
• Scheduled email in other time zones
• Send a birthday message while it’s on your mind
• Reminding yourself to follow-up with a client

The real kicker? You don’t even have to be online in order to schedule your emails. Since everything is handled server-side, you can set your schedules and then synchronize when you’re back on an Internet connection. Boomerang will take care of the rest.

If you’re worried about security, Boomerang is very open about the information that it accesses. According to Alex Moore, the CEO of Baydin:

Like most other Gmail plugins, we need access to the full email data to be able to move and send messages. In our queries, we only store the headers of the message (subject, sender, time) so that we can uniquely ID the message you want to schedule. We don’t store any message text.

While Boomerang is a plugin, it’s only available through invitation for now. It will work in Gmail for those of you running Google Chrome or Firefox 3.6 and higher. Luckily Baydin, the company behind Boomerang, has given TNW readers a code that will be valid for the first 250 people who use it at the Boomerang for Gmail site:

b4gbeta

Well, make that 249…

We’re only a day away from the first games, and the Internet is on the verge of a meltdown with World Cup news.  With 32 teams, 10 stadiums and an entire month of play, how can you stay on top of it all?  We’d like to introduce you to 5 applications that will tell you what you need, when you need it.

We’ll talk about web based apps, as well as ones for your iPhone or Android device so you can keep up while you’re on the go.  So now, without further adieu…

Marca

Marca.com is a Spanish-written site that has an amazing web-based application.  As you scroll around the outer circle, Marca.com will show you information related to whatever area you’re highlighting.  Want to know when Brazil plays?  Just scroll over to find their schedule, as well as location.

ESPN World Cup

For the iPhone, ESPN has put out arguably the best application on the planet. And it’s a good thing, too, because this isn’t called the World Cup for no reason. Worldwide, people are going insane over their favorite football clubs.

The ESPN app has a countdown, some highlight videos and other sundry information at the moment.  But once we get into the action, the app will go to work keeping tabs on games results, scores and up-to-the-minute stats.  The basic app is free, but you can choose to upgrade to get live audio, in-game highlights, commentary and alerts for all 64 matches.

Associated Press FIFA 2010

Not forgetting the Android users of the world, the Associated Press is on top of the games with its FIFA 2010 application. The AP has been at every World Cup match since 1930, so chances are that they know what they’re doing.

Given that this is the World Cup, the AP app is available in multiple languages. Further, you can set custom skins to show your FC pride. To top it off, you’ll get world-class AP coverage, both in video and images. This is the deal for Android users, bar none.

Google

Yes, Google.  The world leader in search has caught the World Cup fever, as we first reported to you yesterday.  But if you Google for World Cup, you’ll find not only the typical results, but a few surprises as well.

Google has gone a step ahead, and provided some lovely search-based tools to help you keep up with the games.  For now, it’s limited to a calendar, but there are more features to be released as the games kick off on Friday.

ScoreMobile

Blackberry users?  We’re showing you some love too, to round out this top 5.  ScoreMobile is available now in the Blackberry App World.

Though ScoreMobile isn’t specific to the World Cup, there’s still plenty of football info to be had.  ScoreMobile allows you to customize with your favorite teams, and gives you options for refresh intervals.  Further, ScoreMobile will keep up with your local time zone, to let you know when games start in your time.

It’s another free app, and for sports fans of many genres, it’s a must-have.

So that’s it.  Grab your app of choice and let’s get ready for