Tagging

=Tag, Tags, Tagging= Blogs, Images, Video, etc…

Introduction
For years, we have been matching and or categorizing items within our lives. Think about some of the items we match in our lives.
 * Do your laundry, match your socks
 * Playing card, match by number or suit
 * Categorize animals into species and breeds
 * Etc…

We even match our friends based on common interest. What does all this have to do with the internet? Actually quite a bit.

With all the content published on the web each day, it can be challenging to locate the information you are looking for. Especially if you are depending on the search engines to keep you up to date. In addition, the amount of data returned can be daunting to the most tenacious researcher. It is equally difficult to analyze and categorize this information based on standard searches. Categorization is where //Tags// show their value.

So what are //Tags//? Simply stated, a //Tag// is a keyword or a label applied to a blog post, and image or video. Once the file is //Tagged// with a keyword, it can be searched for using that //Tag//. For example, a person writing a story about teaching students using one computer in a the classroom my post their experience on their blog site and //Tag// the post with the keyword K-12. Using a //Tag// search tool, ([|Technorati]) the post along with any other post containing the K-12 //Tag// would be located.

Other Web 2.0 tools also utilize //Tags//. For example, many online social image host ([|Flickr]) support //Tags//. Continuing with the example above, the person who wrote the article on the one computer in the classroom included a few images in the blog that have been uploaded and //Tagged// with K-12. Anyone searching [|Flickr] for images //Tagged// with K-12 will find the image placed in the example noted above. [|del.icio.us] the social bookmarking site also utilizes //Tags//. When a person add a web address to their [|del.icio.us] page, the person //Tags// that page with a keyword related to that site. For example, any site related to K-12 would be //Tagged// appropriately. Any person searching [|del.icio.us] for K-12 would find sites related to K-12 according to the person who bookmarked the page on [|del.icio.us]. = =

Activity
Choose a keyword to search for in [|Technorati], [|Flickr] and [|Del.icio.us]. If you can’t think of one, try K-12, education, globalization or flatclassroom. Did you notice any the same sites on each tool? Did you notice a relation between the sites? Did you notice any sites or image that maybe shouldn’t have been tagged with the keyword you searched for?

Resources

 * Technorati [|http://technorati.com]
 * Flickr [|http://www.flickr.comhttp://www.flickr.com]
 * Del.icio.us http://del.icio.ushttp://del.icio.us
 * Tagging for Technorati http://www.technorati.com/help/tags.html
 * Blog Tag Generator ([|David Warlick]) http://landmark-project.com/blogtags.php