Tag Bound Technorati
Thread Title:
Technorati Tags
Technorati Tags
Thread Url:
http://www.technorati.com/tag/
http://www.technorati.com/tag/
Thread Description:
Today i find out that Technorati have started using tags in the same style as Flickr and del.icio.us
For those not in the know, tags are HOT right now, in fact, im thinking my way through a tag based project right now :) The idea is that rather than defining categories for users to post to, as we have here (see left menu), you allow users to input the categories they feel an entry should be filed under themselves. The common way of using that data is to allow popular tags (say 'marketing') that attract a lot of post (ie, alot of people all tag their posts with the same word) to float to the top or otherwise stand out and unpopular tags to sink to the bottom.
If you think about it, it's kind of cool. It means that when searching a system that uses tags for a particular topic, as most people would say 'marketing' rather than 'mktg' for example, the former is easier to find - but as people may well post entries under the shortened name, that can still be found also - but contains fewer entries.
Today i find out that Technorati have started using tags in the same style as Flickr and del.icio.us
For those not in the know, tags are HOT right now, in fact, im thinking my way through a tag based project right now :) The idea is that rather than defining categories for users to post to, as we have here (see left menu), you allow users to input the categories they feel an entry should be filed under themselves. The common way of using that data is to allow popular tags (say 'marketing') that attract a lot of post (ie, alot of people all tag their posts with the same word) to float to the top or otherwise stand out and unpopular tags to sink to the bottom.
If you think about it, it's kind of cool. It means that when searching a system that uses tags for a particular topic, as most people would say 'marketing' rather than 'mktg' for example, the former is easier to find - but as people may well post entries under the shortened name, that can still be found also - but contains fewer entries.
Tagging Posts for Technorati
If you blog, or are otherwise included in the Technorati engine then all you have to do in order to tag an item is add a little link to your post as explained here However, if you use software that supports categories such like Movable Type, WordPress, TypePad then you dont need to do a thing - the system will use your categories as the tags.
Technorati's system is backfilled by the del.icio.us social bookmarking data and photos are provided by flickr - if you've not heard of this taxonomy method before, it's time to start having a little think about it. It's HOT and there are some very interesting possibilities for search marketers.
- Y! MyWeb
I was just thinking of tags t
I was just thinking of tags today, also for a project I'm considering, and wrestling with how to implement them, how to store them, etc. Its all got me a bit confused, and this blasted cold isn't help (nor is the lemsip! grr!)
Tags are definately neat, and leverage a community's clustering, because they have free will to put topics where they want (within 'categories', as it were). I want tags everywhere.
I don't use technorati (nor indeed, any of these aggregating sites, and whatever else) so I can't comment on the specifics, but clearly people are beginning to recognise that tags have a good, high place in the heirarchy (ha) of categorisation methods.
Another way for everryone to look the same
which will invariably make it easier to penalise everyboy using this technique.
That doesnt make sense
How can everyone look the same?
There are infinate variations on how you could use something like that. The fact that the tags themselves are infinate is a good start, but there's no need to follow the technorati/43things way of displaying them on a page and i really dont think that if you run a public website that focuses on user generated data you should be worrying about penalties at all.
It's just being way to over paranoid kali.
If you're talking about using the sytem for auto-gen then maybe that's ever so slightly different. But then why even bother? Theres little to be gained from using it for auto-gen anyway, it would just complicate a system unnecessarily.
Dont let paranoia go to far...
Now (forgive me if I'm being stupid) but..
the Overture search term suggestion tool strikes me as the pinnacle of user generated popularity listings.
Anyone using tags will create a poularity heirarchy which matches the the search term suggestion tool to a greater or lesser degree (probably greater) - Given that most of the major auto-content generators are already using this tool - surely anjnything that tries to use this technique will move their site towards the auto-generated content which has already been banned.
So....
Dont arrange it in that way...
If we're dealing with auto gen then the same rules apply - if you're dealing with user generated stuff then the clearly organic nature of the site should be apparent.
Once Google start messing with ordinary folk and developers like the people behind del.icio.us they're going to be in a whole heap of trouble. Its one thing to go hand banning a few naughty seo's, it's an entirely different thing to allow algorythmic collateral damage to cut a swathe through outrageously popular and innovative user systems.
It's be a PR disaster.
I just dont think that if you're genuinely creating good sites you should worry too much about what Google may do - it just detracts from the purpose - they tread a very thin line at the moment and im sure they know it.
And the line will get thinner...
And as people get better at auto-generating content that line will get thinnner - this is inevitable.
Think About It
Think of something you think about. Pizza, movies, sex, world peace, 2005 model cars, iPod Shuffle, dogs, horse racing, sleeping bags, snow, boxing, tropical beaches, kindness, SEO, therapy.
Yes, you can arrange that subject into its place in a relevant hierarchy. That kind of thinking is often useful, depending on the context. However, I think most of us think much more in a tag-like way. We assign free-form attributes to people, places, things, and ideas. We do it in real-time, on the fly, mostly unconsciously, without a predefined hierarchical structure slowing us down. We don't have to be complete. When can add/change/delete tags anytime we want. As lots of tagging occurs, they can easily and organically be coalesced into hierarchies, if useful.
Think about this post. Wouldn't it be useful to assign a handful of tags to it? I think so.
And think about keywords. People use keywords to find content. People then use tags to organize content. Keywords and tags: Happy bedfellows.