Hometalk relaunches: one part Pinterest, one part Angie's List

Hometalk, a year-old home improvement-themed social network, underwent a total redesign and re-launched on Thursday in hopes of making its content easier to access, and to keep its roughly 100,000 members stuck to the site longer.

The site is designed for homeowners to share pictures, videos, ideas, and conversations about general design and repair themes, including (but not limited to) topics like flooring, gardening, remodeling, painting, and more. This is done in very much the traditional social networking fashion, with user profiles building up networks of friends/followers, and sharing posts based heavily upon photographs. With this redesign, Hometalk has clearly taken note of Pinterest's success, and it includes a new feature called, simply, "Saving." With this feature, users can save any post or photo from other users on a "Virtual Clipboard," similar in both name and design to Pinterest's "Virtual Pinboard."

But beyond the social networking aspect of Hometalk, the site includes a "professionals" section where users connect with local contractors, to hire them for jobs, or simply to ask for advice and opinions. Though it lacks the review and quality control aspect that Angie's List was designed to have, it does provide a free method of communicating directly with home improvement specialists in a place where they can actually build their reputation in front of everyone.

This is a highly valuable aspect to the service which is actually quite understated right now. If you know individuals with their own construction, repair, or design business, you might want to tip them off about Hometalk.

"With this relaunch, Hometalk is now the best place to discuss your home on the Internet," said Matt Shampine, Vice President of Business Development at Hometalk. "The new design is faster and easier to use, so that homeowners can spend less time clicking and more time sharing ideas and enjoying their homes."