Recent Blog Entries
Adding tags to your site
Written by Colin Devroe on July 20, 2005
Application specific plugins, although useful, are limited in their user base. If you really want to contribute to a community, create something that everyone can use.
Jonathan Snook, one of the newest members of the 9rules Network, has written a great article on adding tags to your site using PHP and mySQL. His method is not limited to any specific CMS, which makes it relatively easy for anyone wishing to use tags on their site to do so. This type of contribution is far more reaching than developing a plugin for any specific app.
If you are not sure why someone would want to use tags over categories, check out the Wikipedia article on Tags. Also, for great examples of Websites that use tagging see: Technorati, Flickr and del.icio.us. All of which are thriving folksonomies.
I personally look forward to Jonathan’s future in the Network. Check out his archives for other great finds.
July 24th, 2005 at 2:34 pm
I checked out the article at Wikipedia, and it says nothing about using tags over categories. Someone recently recommended that I use tags (and suggested the BunnysTechnoratiTags plugin for WP) but I still don’t know why I should bother. Doesn’t Technorati use categories too?
July 25th, 2005 at 12:21 am
As far as the pros and cons of using tags over a category structure, I do not think it is Wikipedia’s job to judge for or against each practice. I do know that flat taxonomies hold far more depth than that of a structured category listing.
If you take the Dewey Decimal system as a for instance, it is one of the worst possible solutions to the problem of categorization – yet it will continue to be in use for sometime. It is a good use for categorizing physical things, which is its purpose.
However online we have the privilege of being able to keep incredibly messy categorization, because space is not a commodity. Flat taxonomies, or the world of miscellania works the best.
October 22nd, 2005 at 11:00 am
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