Updates from April, 2009
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How Del.icio.us…
mike manuel
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CNet: Taking Back the Web
mike manuel
Day three of CNet’s five-day special report on the social web (Taking Back the Web) focuses on tagging:
“The idea behind tagging may be irresistibly simple, but its ramifications are enormous and complex. For more than a decade, the primary way to categorize and find information on the Internet was through the automated algorithms of search engines, a process at once laborious and highly imprecise. Tagging has quickly gained popularity because it allows human beings to bring intuitive organization to what otherwise would be largely anonymous entries in an endless sea of data.”
Fair warning, it’s a rather chunky story, but a good one nonetheless, touching on some of the bigger trends (and profiling some of the bigger personalities) behind tagging today.
Also, it’s worth pointing out that the previous two reports have been really well done too (Entertainment: Underground Taste Makers and Wikis: News, History by Committee). I think the wiki report in particular is interesting, especially when you put it in context with an associated wiki-based editorial experiment CNet’s undertaking with its “Reader WIki” (a subject for a follow-up post).
Finally, what’s a special report in a Media 2.0 world if it doesn’t come with the accompanying (cough, obligatory) blog posts, reader comments and podcasts! CNet’s even taken it a step further and offering a full PDF of the special report right now, including tomorrow (update: see Maps) and Friday’s stories, if you simply register. Not a bad deal, here’s the link (PDF).
Technorati Tags: Blogging, Media, Podcasting, Tags, Web 2.0, Wiki
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Technorati: The State of Tagging
mike manuel
According to Technorati, more than 25 million blog posts have been tagged over the last six months. Dave Sifry shares some additional insight in his post today, including a link to a rather shnazzy video. My two cents on the tagging phenom: As social bookmarks and folksonomies continue to gain steam, the way that people catergorize certain items
is going to becomeis becoming — if nothing else — an amazingly insightful way for companies to gauge how users actually perceive thier brands, products and services. -
Feedster Says ‘Tag This’
mike manuel
Feedster’s taking a new approach to tagging with the introduction of a code script that basically bolts a tag submission form to your blog posts (see the footer of this post for an example). You’ll notice a simple text box with a ‘Tag This’ button.
By lowering the barrier to trial for tagging (e.g., there’s no need for a reader to have a seperate delicious account), I have to think you inevitablly improve the volume and quality of a social index. Feedster’s CEO Scott Rafer shares more in his blog post. He’ll also be talking at tonight’s Future Salon.
We came at the problem seeking inclusiveness, largely based on Dan Gillmor’s oft-quoted statment that his readers "know more than [he does]." Not all his readers have or want delicious accounts or want to learn enough to create them, though the benefits of a full social bookmarking account are numerous.
Most of what we’re concerned feature-wise is with distributing the capability as widely as possible, giving people the option to tag anonymously, and making sure that real human beings are doing the tagging rather than bots.
The tags submitted now are "real" and being databased, so give it a shot on your blog or mine. Just due to time constraints, the tags are only displayed once a new tag is submitted. All the tag data will be available via the expected and reasonable mechanisms shortly.
