Comments on: Tags vs. Categories

By: David Louis Edelman

David Louis Edelman — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 19:50:48 +0000

I was very pleased with the Copernic Desktop search for quite a long time. It’s remarkably quick, and it’s got a very slick, easy-to-use interface. But then they came out with a new version which kept crashing my computer, and I had to uninstall.

By: Jeremy James

Jeremy James — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 19:19:48 +0000

And it’ll be ready by 2003, when Windows Vista comes out. 2004 at the latest.

–LOL.

In the meantime, Copernic or Google Desktop do a pretty good job of helping you find stuff based on keyword. It’s not quite tagging, but the idea is similar.

By: David Louis Edelman

David Louis Edelman — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 03:19:51 +0000

Don’t worry, Soni! Microsoft’s on the case! What you’re describing is pretty much what their new WinFS file system is supposed to do — make you forget about folder structure and just find what you want in the operating system through search or tagging. The whole thing is supposed to actually run off of a SQL Server database.

And it’ll be ready by 2003, when Windows Vista comes out. 2004 at the latest.

By: Soni

Soni — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 03:11:16 +0000

Personally, I’m waiting for a tag-based desktop GUI (hint to all you open source code monkeys out there looking for a project). The only thing I hate more than trying to figure out what folder a document fits into (does a “keyword search how-to for small business marketing” ebook go in SEO, marketing, business reference or what?) is spending time searching for it later, then half an hour later trying to figure out what the hell I was thinking when I stuck it into ‘copywriting.’

Usually, I just end up sticking several copies into several different folders. Which just means that if I ever edit that document, I’ve got to find them all and edit them likewise. Or do the one document, many shortcuts crap.

OTOH, a tag-based desktop that does away with folders altogether would make life ever so much easier. Just click around in the tag cloud on the screen until I find the tag I’m looking for, then I can see not only the file I’m looking for, but all related files and all related tags. It’s like organic mind map stimulation every time you open a file!

Yeah baby.

*sigh* stupid folders

By: Jeremy James

Jeremy James — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 02:26:06 +0000

Christopher: think of categories as a “location” in that you can’t be in more than one place at once.

Think of tags as pixels in a digital image; more pixels = a better job of describing what the picture is about.

Or google Clay Shirky’s essay on the ontology of tags…

By: JohnV

JohnV — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 23:36:32 +0000

I don’t have a lot to say about tags since I’ve only recently started thinking about them myself (which makes you post interesting), but I don’t think I agree with your claim that genre will disappear (only to be replaced by sub-genres).

People like to classify things and put them in different groups. I would argue it comes naturally to us, much like patterns.
And people are very good at seeing patterns. Just like faces, it seems to be hardwired into us.

I certainly can’t say that I think the current genres will remain with us, but I just don’t see things like them going away unless something fairly basic about our nature changes.

I do think that the internet makes these sub-genres a lot stronger than they ever could have been before, and that is a great thing.

By: David Louis Edelman

David Louis Edelman — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 23:26:30 +0000

I think it’s really just a question of semantics. Same concept, different nuance. I think “keywords” is probably a better term.

By: christopher

christopher — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 22:13:10 +0000

i don’t really understand the idea of tags. aren’t they just a finer delineated category?

By: David Louis Edelman

David Louis Edelman — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 19:20:36 +0000

Thanks for the suggestion, Jeremy. Not sure if I want to change the existing categories right now, but I do like the idea of having them be a different type of classification than tags.

Glad you’re enjoying the blog. Always good to have authors commenting here. It makes me feel important.

By: Jeremy James

Jeremy James — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 15:39:13 +0000

Way to embrace tags. They matter.

One suggestion for the use of categories (because they matter too): Category = “type” of content / medium (audio, video, blog, essay, interview, news, etcetera).

Tag = “topic” that the particular type of content is about, which could be anything.

In other words, categories are about the format, and tags are about the meaning conveyed in whatever format.

This is a very useful thing to provide your audience, since you can search for topic / tag first, and then tailor the results based on the type of media you want to consume.

Anyway, keep up the great blogging. I’m a longtime reader of your RSS feed.