KB101: Obsessive-Compulsive Tagging is Healthy

Obsessive-compulsive tagging is healthy. “Found is the new search,” so they say. Tag your posts, categorize them, label them. Use social bookmarking software. Make up original tags. Tag clouds are fluffy.

I can't stress this enough. Next to OCH (obsessive-compulsive hyperlinking), we also have to have a basketcase of OCT (obsessive-compulsive tagging).

I'm not going to repeat the reasons why tagging is a good thing. People already did a  study on this.

1) Cognitive analysis of tagging

2) Social analysis of tagging

3) Tag clouds are fluffy like clouds

Ma.gnolia: My First Impressions

Only @ Ma.gnolia #1 - Fluffy Tagging
Originally uploaded by coolmel.

Re: KB101: Obsessive-Compulsive Tagging is Healthy

why Ma.gnolia instead of del.icio.us? here's another reason:

Ma.gnolia has a Budding Bus.ine.ss Mo.del

Re: KB101: Obsessive-Compulsive Tagging is Healthy

I've also expounded on this in a blog post:

Subtle Broadcasting via Obsessive-compulsive Tagging (OCT)

Re: KB101: Obsessive-Compulsive Tagging is Healthy

and here's another reason why OCT is healthy!

State of the Blogosphere, April 2006 Part 2: On Language and Tagging

Tagging, the act of categorizing posts with simple words or phrases, continues to grow, and the number of posts with tags or categories has grown past the 100 Million mark since Technorati began tracking tags in January of 2005.

Nearly half (47%) of all blog posts have an author-generated category or set of tags associated with the post. For this analysis, Technorati excluded generic or default categories, like “General” or “Diary”, which some services put into each post if the author doesn't specify a particular tag or category. We only counted posts that used a non-default tag or category.

Many bloggers use this tagging capability to help get their content found by people who are searching for a particular topic, even if that topic isn't listed as a keyword in the post. Of course, one of the remaining open questions is whether or not that will lead to massive gaming of the system, but current trends seem to present evidence that large-scale gaming is not occurring. In fact, my belief is that because tags are built as hyperlinks inside the document, and thus visible to the reader, that a strong social pressure to use appropriate tags (or at least to not use inappropriate tags) manifests itself, especially with bloggers who want to cultivate influence and readers.

Re: KB101: Obsessive-Compulsive Tagging is Healthy

See also: FAQ: Why Do I Need to Tag My Stuff? That's Too Much Work For Me

Re: KB101: Obsessive-Compulsive Tagging is Healthy

Zaadz Bookmarks (zBookmarks) is Alive!

now check these…

http://bookmarks.zaadz.com/tagged/blogging

http://bookmarks.zaadz.com/tagged/kosmicbloggers

and start adding your stuff! :)

Re: KB101: Obsessive-Compulsive Tagging is Healthy

see also:

Wisdom Teeth XRay

Here is the XRay I had done before I had my wisdom teeth extracted.
Uploaded by JasonRogers on 9 Aug '06, 6.06am PDT.

Re: KB101: Obsessive-Compulsive Tagging is Healthy

Hi C4,

I made a strong blog post last night and thought of you while I was tagging the crap out of it.

(Love the xray, Homer.  Doh!)