Bringing your intranet into the 21 st Century Part Three: Tagging

A tag is a (relevant) keyword or term associated with or assigned to a piece of information (like picture, article, or video clip), thus describing the item and enabling keyword-based classification of information it is applied to

A tag is a (relevant) keyword or term associated with or assigned to a piece of information (like picture, article, or video clip), thus describing the item and enabling keyword-based classification of information it is applied to

Your brain will always try to make connections between an item and candidate concepts . Tagging is natural

Your brain will always try to make connections between an item and candidate concepts .

Tagging is natural

Categorization adds another step You must try to pick the best concept

Categorization adds another step

You must try to pick the best concept

Categorization makes you think about maximizing future findability and balancing your categorization scheme Tagging eliminates the decision

Categorization makes you think about maximizing future findability and balancing your categorization scheme

Tagging eliminates the decision

Sites like del.icio.us are based on the idea that all of us are smarter than any one of us

Sites like del.icio.us are based on the idea that all of us are smarter than any one of us

What if users don’t think of the same categories as you ? How do they know where to click first to find what they’re looking for? How many options should you give them?

What if users don’t think of the same categories as you ?

How do they know where to click first to find what they’re looking for?

How many options should you give them?

Keyword search engines give users a box to type in their keywords, then gives them a list of results. If users can’t find what they’re looking for, they can only try another search .

Keyword search engines give users a box to type in their keywords, then gives them a list of results.

If users can’t find what they’re looking for, they can only try another search .

Instead of a menu , popular web 2.0 sites like Flickr are navigated using tag clouds

Instead of a menu , popular web 2.0 sites like Flickr are navigated using tag clouds

Tag-based navigation lets you narrow your search by showing you combinations of tags You can also expand your search by looking for related tags

Tag-based navigation lets you narrow your search by showing you combinations of tags

You can also expand your search by looking for related tags

The best way to take advantage of tagging is social bookmarking However, even if we insist on doing all the tagging ourselves , tags make for better navigation and search than what we have now

The best way to take advantage of tagging is social bookmarking

However, even if we insist on doing all the tagging ourselves , tags make for better navigation and search than what we have now