Pinterest has surged to become the number 3 social network after Facebook and Twitter:

Sean Ludwig via VentureBeat

Pinterest surprised many last December when it was revealed as a top 10 social network. The new Experian report says Pinterest’s traffic surged 50 percent between February and January of this year, which is growth that’s stunning in itself. That surge has allowed the site to overtake services like Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Google+ for the third highest number of visits in February. And not only is it fun for users, it’s also a killer tool for marketers.

Adding to the good news, analytics firm comScore also  said recently that Pinterest attracted 17.8 million unique visitors in February from the U.S. alone. In terms of engagement, Pinterest is winning as well, with users spending an average of 89 minutes per month on site. However, the social network still lags behind Facebook, which has users spending an average of 405 minutes per month on its site.

Personally, I find Pinterest banal: the Las Vegas of social networks, where everything thing in the US psyche — good or bad — is raised to its most extreme garishness.

However, I don’t like Facebook much either — but for a wide variety of other reasons.