Because of flickr as well as Facebook, I think “tagging” has gained a lot of popularity in the recent years. Whenever I think about “tags”, I will associate them with “keywords” or names of categories. And these keywords are exactly used to describe some photos, documents or web pages on the internet.
Although many people like using tagging nowadays, I am not a big fan of it. Imagining you want to look for a picture which is about kissing. You have tried all the possible keywords but still cannot find a good one. Later, you find a kissing picture that you really love by accident. However, when you look at it carefully, you find that its tag is made up of symbols only. Don’t you feel annoyed about discovering that? I mean, why are they relevant? I sometimes encountered this problem and I would feel very upset even though I had found the picture I wanted. I am not saying that that tag is used wrongly but what I am trying to say is, the meaning of a tag can be very personal and ambiguous. Sometimes, some tags may have no meaning at all!!!At least, those symbols are really not meaningful for the rest of us. I guess that the reason behind this is that the folksonomy users don’t have a set of formal guidelines to follow when they create the tags.
There is still one advantage of using folders. That is, everything will be very organized but not messy. Take a look at this video which is about "SmartFolders". Don't you think that everything is well organized and appropriately located?
There is still one advantage of using folders. That is, everything will be very organized but not messy. Take a look at this video which is about "SmartFolders". Don't you think that everything is well organized and appropriately located?
Of course, some people may argue that folders also have some limitations. Like Rodney said, people have to decide which folder they should put a picture or whatever item in each time. They can only put the picture in a single folder at a time if they don’t duplicate it. Yet, personally, I still like folders more. I can always find the pictures I want somewhere in a right folder but they are not floating around in a big sea. For example, I can easily find those vineyard pictures in a folder called “Vineyard”. =] I don't have to search 10 different keywords to get a picture I really want!
At last, I want to share another video that teaches the lovers and owners of iPhone 4 who want to create folders on their phone.
Which one do you guys favor? Tagging or Folders?
Tagging is really quite convenient yet I found that sometimes people just like to misuse it! Such as when I am searching for a product of a particular brand in the Yahoo auction page, some irrelevant products appear every time as people use it as a way to increase their chances of being searched!! It often makes us spend more time to find what we need!!Don't you think so?
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you!!! I found it so annoying too!!!Since using tags is so easy, it thus creates another problem-people tend to misuse it!!! If people keep tagging information for a wrong purpose, they will cause a lot of inconvenience to others.
ReplyDeleteI think that the tagging function in flicker and facebook are a bit different, right? I love the tagging function in facebook as i no longer need to ask my friends to send me back the photos, it saves me a lot of time. =]
ReplyDeleteGood remarks. I guess the theory is that even though some people tag badly, if a lot of people tag something then at least some of the tags will be appropriate. I guess tagging also has a kind of social function on facebook and flikr -- people might send secret messages or joke with their friends with their tags.
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