Thing #14: Technorati and How Tags Work
Well, while I was intrigued by the possibilities of del.icio.us, I found Technorati to be a bit chaotic. I'm sure it's very helpful for bloggers who want a wide audience, but I found all the ranking and tagging to be distracting. It's nice to have the tags in order to search for a specific subject on the blogosphere, but of course if you want to do that there's always Google Blog Search, which in some ways is far more thorough. (A search for "linguistics" gets 11 hits on Technorati, and 638,000 on Google Blog Search. "Newbery" has zero results on Technorati, but 148,000 on Google. "Three musketeers" gets 6 on Technorati, while GBS gives 243,000. Hey, apparently they're making a 2011 movie! Sweet.)
Technorati's main strength seems to be tracking which blogs are "hot" right now, based on who's linking to them, and which blogs are losing influence. A sort of Billboard for the blog business, I suppose, and indubitably of intense interest to industry insiders, but - in my opinion - not so necessary to those of us who look for specific content for one-time perusal.
Showing posts with label tags. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tags. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Thing #13
Thing #13: Tagging and Discover Delicious
Well, I started a del.icio.us account. I've used this service before and, frankly, didn't see the benefit to it. It's very easy, after all, to use your web browser to sort bookmarks into folders as soon as you save them, so the whole thing seemed a bit redundant to me.
However, I was wrong. I overlooked two redeeming qualities. First, with del.icio.us you can access your bookmarks from any computer.
Second, and more importantly, I didn't see the social aspect of sites such as this. I like the way del.icio.us can be used as a community builder. It shows you the number of people who have tagged a particular website, and by clicking on that link you see the accounts of those who share your interests. For example, after tagging my school's website, I found the account of a parent from my class two years ago who also tagged the site.
It can be used with students as well. For example, parents from my classes are always asking me what websites I use with the kids. I could set up a classroom-friendly account and give them that URL, with all the sites listed and tagged for easy perusal.
Well, I started a del.icio.us account. I've used this service before and, frankly, didn't see the benefit to it. It's very easy, after all, to use your web browser to sort bookmarks into folders as soon as you save them, so the whole thing seemed a bit redundant to me.
However, I was wrong. I overlooked two redeeming qualities. First, with del.icio.us you can access your bookmarks from any computer.
Second, and more importantly, I didn't see the social aspect of sites such as this. I like the way del.icio.us can be used as a community builder. It shows you the number of people who have tagged a particular website, and by clicking on that link you see the accounts of those who share your interests. For example, after tagging my school's website, I found the account of a parent from my class two years ago who also tagged the site.
It can be used with students as well. For example, parents from my classes are always asking me what websites I use with the kids. I could set up a classroom-friendly account and give them that URL, with all the sites listed and tagged for easy perusal.
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