As of 8 August, Pinterest, the third most-visited social networking site in the U.S, is open to all potential users, invitation-free.

The site recently added new categories to its retinue and redesigned certain features in a streamlining effort that will appeal to potential advertisers and improve its viability as a comms tool.

Pinterest currently has around 200,000 users in the United Kingdom. Like many other social media sites, it followed the Facebook model of launching first to a select group, often on an invite-only basis, before opening registration to the general public.

Google Plus, which eliminated its invitation requirement in September 2011, was a hot ticket for social networkers. Perhaps in an attempt to drive up consumer interest, the tech giant reserved access to its venture into social media to a few lucky users. The motivation may also have been technical, as too much traffic would have overloaded the fledgling endeavour.

Pinterest’s blog post announcing the decision touched on its capability to now host more users.

“We’re really excited to have the capacity to offer Pinterest to more people and if you’re a Pinner with friends who’ve been waiting on the sidelines, we hope you’ll let them know,” it said.

Users can register via Facebook, Twitter or an email account.