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Tags? What Are Those?
January 31, 2008

You've seen them on web sites, some in big letters and some small, and noticed that it's a paragraph full of words or phrases that usually accompanies an article, blog, photo, video clip, etc.  Its purpose is all about taxonomy--they're the search terms.



The definition of a tag is a keyword or term associated with, or assigned to, a piece of information (a picture, a geographic map, a blog entry, a video clip etc.), thus describing the item and enabling keyword-based classification and search of information.   It's the visual version of keywords you've selected to help people find you online.

According to Flickr.com, tags help you find photos which have something in common.  Del.icio.us states that a tag is simply a word you use to describe a bookmark and it's a good way to discover interesting things online (I agree).  Technorati (a blog search engine - promote your blog here) uses them, as well as Icerocket (another blog search engine...promote your blog here as well).

Should you use them on your web site?  Unless you plan on having a social community as part of your site, I say no, but it's always good to know what's working online.

Posted by Suze Bragg on January 31, 2008 | Comments (0)