This document discusses tag clouds, which are visual representations of keywords or tags used on a website. Tag clouds display tags in different font sizes to indicate popularity, with more popular tags shown in larger, bolder fonts. The document defines tag clouds and explains their types, creation, perception, and tools for generating them online. It notes that tag clouds benefit users by providing navigation, highlighting search terms, and allowing grouping of similar tags.

1. CLOUD TAG
K.Kanaka Valli
09131A1232
15/02/2013
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2. Contents
 Tag Cloud
 Definition
 Types of tag clouds
 Visual appearance
 Perception of tag clouds
 Tag Index vs. Tag Cloud
 Creation of tag cloud
 Online tools to create tag cloud
 Benefits of tag cloud
 Advantages and Disadvantages
 Conclusion
 References
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3. Tag Cloud
 A Tag Cloud is a tool used to
visually show the popularity of
a tagged word and how often it
has been used.
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4. Definition
 Tag cloud is a visual depiction of the tags (topics) on a Web site.
 The tags are usually listed alphabetically and font size or color is
used to show the relative importance of a tag.
 The most popular topics are normally highlighted in a larger, bolder
font. Visitors to a blog or site using a tag cloud, are able to easily see
the most popular tags within the page - making it easy to discern the
topics covered in one quick look. Also called a weighted list.
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5. Types of tag clouds
 There are 3 types:
 Frequency:
o In the first type, size represents the number of times that tag has
been applied to a single item.
o Useful for displaying metadata of an item that is democratically
„voted‟ and where precise results are not required.
o Eg: LibraryThing(to indicate tags attributed to a book).
 In the second type, size represents the number of items to which a
tag has been applied, as a presentation of each tag's popularity.
o Eg: Google search results with DeeperWeb.
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6. Types of tag clouds
 Categorization:
o In the third type, tags are used as a categorization method for
content items. Tags are represented in a cloud where larger tags
represent the quantity of content items in that category.
 The term keyword cloud is sometimes used as a search engine
marketing (SEM) term that refers to a group of keywords that are
relevant to a specific website.
 Tag clouds have gained popularity because of their role in search
engine optimization of Web pages
 Tag clouds can also be used as navigation tools.
 They support user in finding content more quickly.
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7. Visual appearance
 Tag clouds are typically represented using inline HTML elements.
 The tags can appear in alphabetical order, in a random order, they
can be sorted by weight, and so on. Sometimes, further visual
properties are manipulated in addition to font size, such as the font
color, intensity, or weight.
 Most popular is a rectangular tag arrangement with alphabetical
sorting in a sequential line-by-line layout.
 The decision for an optimal layout should be driven by the expected
user goals.
 Some prefer to cluster the tags semantically so that similar tags will
appear near each other.
 Heuristics can be used to reduce the size of the tag cloud whether or
not the purpose is to cluster the tags.
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8. Visual effects in tag clouds
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9. Data cloud
A data cloud or cloud data is a data display which uses font
size and/or color to indicate numerical values. It is similar to
a tag cloud but instead of word count, displays data such as
population or stock market prices.
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10. Text clouds
A text cloud or
word cloud is a
visualization of
word frequency in
a given text as a
weighted list. The
technique has
recently been
popularly used to
visualize the
topical content of
political speeches
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11. Collocate Cloud •This extends the
principle of text
cloud.
•A collocate
cloud provides a
more focused view
of a document.
•Collocate cloud
examines the usage
of a particular word.
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12. Perception of tag clouds
 Tag size: Large tags attract more user attention than small tags
 Scanning: Users scan rather than read tag clouds
 Centering: Tags in the middle of the cloud attract more user attention
than tags near the borders
 Position: The upper left quadrant receives more user attention than
the others
 Exploration: Tag clouds provide suboptimal support when searching
for specific tags
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13. Tag Index vs. Tag cloud
Tag Index Tag Cloud
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14. Creation of tag cloud
 Generally, the font size of a tag in a tag cloud is determined by its
incidence.
 For smaller frequencies one can specify font sizes directly, from one
to whatever the maximum font size.
 For larger values, a scaling should be made.
 To calculate the font size there exists a formula.
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15. Creation of tag cloud
Formula for calculating font size in the creation of tag cloud is:
x = (b-a) (y-w)
----------- + w
(c-a)
Where,
a = the smallest count (or occurrence).
b = the count of the tag being computed.
c = the largest count.
w = the smallest font-size.
x = the font-size for the tag. It is the unknown.
y = the largest font-size.
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16. Creation of tag cloud
 Let us take an example:
tags | occurrences
-----------------------------
birthday | 144
christmas | 108
valentines | 211
thanksgiving | 168
liberation | 88
halo ween | 114
new year | 140
Present the tags as a cloud tag being the valentines day as the biggest
(with 50px font-size) and the liberation day as the smallest (with
12px font-size)?
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17. Creation of tag cloud
 Now let's substitute the given values to their respective variables.
Assuming that we are solving for the "thanksgiving" font-size.
a = 88
b = 168
c = 211
w = 12
x=?
y = 50
 Substitute the values to the equation above,
x = ( ((168-88) * (50-12)) / (211-88) ) + 12
x = 36.715446
x = 37
The thanksgiving tag should have 37px font-size in the tag cloud.
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18. Creation of tag cloud
 Similarly,computing for the rest of the tags.
birthday = 29px
christmas = 18px
valentines = 50px
thanksgiving = 37px
liberation = 12px
halo ween = 20px
new year = 28px
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19. Tips on Tagging
• Tag in moderation, and try to choose words that are descriptive to
avoid Tag clutter on your computer.
• Avoid overlapping tags by using words that mean the same.
Ex: Tag words as „Red‟ instead of having multiple words for the
same meaning( maroon, burgundy, cherry red, etc.)
• Stay away from changing tags half way through, if you start by
tagging a word as „photography‟, don‟t tag the next as „pictures‟.
• It is more efficient to tag using simple words, than to use
complicated words.
• Choosing keywords that might be tagged by other users can be
beneficial to your social bookmarking page.
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20. Differences in websites using Tag clouds
Flickr
Uses size to show most used words
Wiki Browser
Uses pictures to visually represent the
word
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21. Online tools to create tag cloud
Tag Crowd
 TagCrowd is a website that
allows you to create a tag cloud
from plain text, a link or even
an uploaded plain text file with
the words to mention in the tag
cloud
 If you want to find out the most
searched words of a
website, enter its URL in
WebPage URL bar
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22. Online tools to create tag cloud
Wordle
 Wordle is an online tool that
allows users to create world
clouds, or tag clouds in a more
different fashion and layout
 You can create a tag cloud
based on plain text, a URL link
 Once you create the tag
clouds, you can edit the
layout, change the colors and
even arrange the words in a
different manner
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23. Online tools to create tag cloud
ToCloud
 Just enter the link to the
blog/news page to find the tag
clouds for that website, or enter
the text you want to visualize in
the tag clouds
 You can even enter some “Stop
Words” to filter out words that
you do not want visible in the
tag cloud – these may include
abusive words, junk, etc
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24. Online tools to create tag cloud
Tagul
 Unlike other website, you need
to create an account in this
website to create tag clouds
 Once, a tag cloud is
created, you can change the
fonts of different words, change
the color and even the position
of the words to arrange them in
a manner to form a symbol or
anything you want
(heart, horse, etc)
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25. Online tools to create tag cloud
Tagxedo
 Unlike other websites, they
allow you to create tag clouds
from more than just URL links
and plain text. Tagxedo is a
website that even allows you
create tag clouds from Twitter
ID, Del.icio.us, and RSS
 You can choose the shape if
you want to arrange the tag-
cloud in one, or just choose the
classic shape to arrange them in
a normal way
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26. In what ways do Tag Clouds benefit us?
 As navigation menu
 As search terms
 Tag clouds provide us with a way to see our most used keywords
 It allows you to group tags that are similar so that they appear next to
each other in the cloud
 They show the main subjects and make it easy to access the websites
directly
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27. Advantages and disadvantages
 The advantages are that tag clouds have a very simple design, are
easy to understand and they don't suffer from the labeling problems
of bar charts, treemaps etc
 Supporting the user in navigating the content in an information
system efficiently
 A little bit disadvantageous is the fact that longer words are stressed
more than shorter words
 Depended on the type of words used the tag cloud can become less
efficient
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28. Conclusion
 Tag cloud is a new paradigm for the Web that also marked a huge
change of direction in the approach to design websites than before
 The main guidelines of the new trend in web design was
simplicity, minimalism, central layout, bigger text, bold
logos, gradient and reflection effects, which constitute the
fundamental basis for a viral revolution of the face of the World
Wide Web
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29. References
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_cloud
 http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/11/07/tag-clouds-gallery-
examples-and-good-practices/
 http://blog.16codes.com/2007/12/how-to-create-tag-cloud-with-
formula.html
 http://www.slideshare.net/digitalmaverick/tag-cloud-presentation-
presentation
 http://maketecheasier.com/5-online-tools-to-create-tag-
clouds/2012/01/10
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31. Any Quries????
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