Tagging Tactics
Published on 18 Jan 2006 · Filed in General · 280 words (estimated 2 minutes to read)I wouldn’t dare to describe myself an expert on the use of such sites or services as del.icio.us, Technorati, or other sites that promote the use of “tags” as a means of organizing links or other content. I do use these sites (you’ll note the “Technorati Tags” added to each post), and I do find them very useful. However, I’m beginning to shift tactics in my use of tags, and hoping that this change will make these services even more useful.
Up until now, I’ve used tags primarily as categories, as a way of grouping links (or other content) together. For example, my Linux tag on del.icio.us contains links that all primarily center around Linux. That makes perfect sense, but what about links that discuss Linux integration with Windows? With my old system, that creates a quandary, a conflict that is not necessarily easy to resolve.
Moving forward, I’m going to start using tags more as keywords than categories. This will mean that more items will have multiple tags associated with them (and that makes sense), but it will also mean more tags than I have used in the past. This will allow me to more easily tag links and content in such a way that I hope will be more useful to myself and others.
I will continue, however, to attempt to use the same sets of tags across multiple sites and services, just as I do now with my del.icio.us links and my weblog content.
If anyone has any feedback on other ways I can make tagging work more effectively, I’d love to hear about it—perhaps someone out there would care to share their tips, tricks, and techniques?