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Why Tagging Matters

stoweboyd.com — Their survey, conducted in December of 2006, found that 28% of internet users have tagged or categorized content online such as photos, news stories or blog posts." And that "On a typical day online, 7% of internet users say they tag or categorize online content."

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msaleem 1 year 253 days ago, made popular 1 year 252 days ago

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synystar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18Sometimes I'm too busy/lazy/drunk to think about every category future me might think of. Sometimes I just want to save something and move on, so I apply whatever tags come to mind immediately. Two months later it takes me too long to find an article that I know I saved but not for the same reason I want it now.

I'd like a mix between hierarchical systems, Adsense, and a thesaurus. Popular tags are good, but I also want a quick and easy tree that I can browse to jog my memory and a list of similar tags to whatever I just chose on the side. Also, a flying car would be nice.
- digggsuxxx, on 10/12/2007, -14/+2tagging doesn't matter. a good description does.
  
  reported as inaccurate
magnoliasouth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I really prefer tagging over folders for most things, and I use Delicious, Stumble Upon and Gmail for that very reason. Though folders are helpful too. I agree with synystar to an extent. A nice mix would be just perfect.
ekboost, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3its a misleading statistic, its says tagging AND categorizing.
versionist, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3Tagging is the least useful thing on the internet in my opinion.
- etruscan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You're likely the sort of person that dumps all their pictures from their digital camera into one folder and then goes hunting for them a year later, angry that you didn't keep them in better order. Tagging does matter, as it keeps thing organized. Better than that, a good tagging system on a blog (for example) gives the search engine another means to go back and discover older (but not necessarily any less relevant) content. In other words, it keeps good content afloat.
- unabomber, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1He could just sort them by corresponding folders you nerd.
  Not everything that is cool and modern is comfortable to use.
- armourer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Hi Unabomber.
  You must be new here.
dreamlayers, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4I sometimes thought it would be nice if Digg allowed tagging of stories. Then again, Slashdot has a tagging system and it seems to be a joke. I don't suppose it would work better here.

A few days ago I checked out http://del.icio.us , wondering if I should use it instead of Firefox bookmarks. I came to the conclusion that tagging is more work and less practical than a hierarchy of folders.

So... tagging... meh. Plus the stats are misleading because this is about tagging and categorizing. Buried as inaccurate.
- seppkurt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1it is definitely an alternative to firefox bookmarks, with the extension and some organization in the bookmarks it rules. an furthermore you got access everywhere.
- Switch22, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4at least with the delicious extension for firefox you can click on popular tags for the site, no thinking required
jeremiah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I keep expecting digg to incorporate tagging for the items you digg to help you navigate back through it. I think I would like to see an option to also send the original URL of the item dugg to my del.icio.us account when I digg it. May be redundant but I am having a harder time finding my old dugg items now when looking for something specific.
PONYtheband, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0i thought this was a story on graff..hah...i was like yes!!!
Retardus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1User Generated Tags Are Useless Noise:
http://www.seobook.com/archives/002022.shtml
- seppkurt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1but you have to add that it maybe useless for someone else but on your oqn tagging will help you to organize your stuff.
zdiggler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I been looking for a Standard way of tagging my pictures. Standard like how MP3 are tagged for pictures. The EXIF and IPTC but there is good software to use advantage of it. Usually IPTC tags get erased if you edit the software with uncompatible software. :(
A lot of photoalbum software use their own way to tagging and does not work with other. All it need is IPTC plain text with "," sperators and software to build a DB using that info.
mousky, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The 'survey' says that 28 percent of users tagged their online material. That means that 72 percent of users did not tag their online content. When the majority of users do not tag their material, how can tagging matter?
- mojotek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Because maybe all it takes for content to get relevant tags is 28% of users tagging/categorizing content.
  
  The headline for this story is very misleading, since the article never says WHY tagging matters... but I do believe that it DOES matter.
vastrightwing, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Lazy, don't have time. To tag thoughtfully requires effort. The typing isn't the issue. It's brain bandwidth to consider proper tags. I also don't contribute to news groups since I don't have time for that either. However, to ease my guilt, there are many people who love to reply to news groups and tag. Also, if it's important enough, people will do it. If you don't have passion for something, then leave it alone.
lostboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think i'm too old fashioned, I can't get used to tagging as an alternative to folders. I've tried to get used to services like delicious, but it just doesn't work for me.

I know tags are great and everyone loves them, but i'll stick with folders for organizing.
p_o_b, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Otherwise the same person would be it forever.
po43292, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You're it!
martin77, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1its my turn to be it .
animus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I've never heard of "Tagging" before.
I never realized there were that many anal retentives who would do such a thing.
- kaffein, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Tagging is useful to websites that are based upon the concept of finding content by using tags... http://www.last.fm is my favorite example.
  
  For finding things via search engines... a minimal amount of properly used keywords, relevant to the content of a page, is still the method used.
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Why Tagging Matters

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