Quest 6 - Tag, You're It!

Tagging is an open and informal method of categorizing that allows users to associate keywords with online content (web pages, pictures & posts). Unlike library subject cataloging, which follows a strict set of guidelines (i.e.Library of Congress subject headings), tagging is completely unstructured and free-form, allowing users to create connections between data any way they want. In upcoming Quests, we will explore a few sites – Flicker and LibraryThing to name two - that allow users to take advantage of tagging. (You're already using one site that allows tagging: Blogger! It calls them "labels" and you can see the labels we've chosen for each week at the bottom of every Quest posted here on Tech Trek 2.0.)

This week we'll exploring two very popular sites that use tagging: the social bookmarking site Del.icio.us, and a popular blog search engine Technorati.


Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us (typed in as http://del.icio.us/) is a social bookmarking manager which allows you to bookmark a web page, add tags to categorize your bookmarks, and share your bookmarks with the world! One great reason to use Del.icio.us for your bookmarks is that you can see your bookmarks on any computer with Net access. (Many library service desks have a certain set of web sites they visit all the time. Wouldn't it be helpful to be able to see those bookmarks no matter which computer you're using right now? Yes, we thought so, too!)

Additionally, many Del.icio.us users love being able to use tags to see how other users have tagged similar links and also discover other websites that may be of interest to you. Think of it as peering into another users’ filing cabinet and also having access to a filing cabinet that millions of people have helped create. We'll take a closer look inside Del.icio.us during the Discovery Resources & Discovery Exercise below.


Technorati

Since we've been using the Tech Trek 2.0 blog and our individual blogs since Quest 2, you might be wondering just how big the blogosphere (aka: the blogging world) is. Well, according to Technorati, a leading search engine / authority on blogs, the number of blogs doubles just about every 6 months, with over 106.2 million blogs currently being tracked by the site. As for tags, over 250 million bits of media are currently tagged on the site! Yes, these numbers are astounding, but as you’ve already seen for yourselves, blogging is easy and inexpensive enough that almost every industry, including libraries, is entering the blogosphere.

So how does a person get their blog listed on Technorati, and how can you tag your posts with keywords to make them more findable in a Technorati search? The answer to the first question is that your blog is probably already being captured by Technorati if you're using very popular blogging tools such as Blogger, LiveJournal, WordPress. However, if you want to join the party and have your blog officially listed on Technorati and also take advantage of the site's other features, you’ll need to claim your blog yourself. As for tagging posts with Technorati tags? That's pretty easy, too. All you need to do is add a little bit of HTML code to the bottom of your post (see the example at the end of this post) and Technorati will pick up these tags when it checks (or web crawls) your site. Of course, as a popular blog & media search tool, you can use Technorati to locate blogs, videos, video blogs, and music. You can search for keywords within blog posts, search for a particular blog post, videos, or music files that have been tagged with a certain keyword, or search for blogs that have been registered and tagged as a blog about a certain subject (like photography or libraries). The best way to understand what Technorati can do is to try searching it, which we will do as part of the Discovery Exercise.



Discovery Resources

Otter Group Del.icio.us tutorial (12 min video) - Talks (among other things) about how to use Del.icio.us tags to find new websites on any topic. [Edit: Another video to try in case this one doesn't work is Getting Started With Del.icio.us.]

Us.ef.ul: A beginners guide to Del.icio.us

Several Habits of wildly successful Del.icio.us users

Technorati Review Part 1 and Part 2 - from the Recommended Web Tools Blog

Technorati Redesigned - Get Realigned Here - a good overview of the current version of Technorati's interface, which changed this past May. (Many Technorati tutorials out there still cover the previous version.)

Technorati Popular features



Discovery Exercise
One half of this week's exercise is about Del.icio.us. The other half is on Technorati.

Part One: Del.icio.us

1. View the 12 minute Del.icio.us tutorial to get a good overview of its features.
2. Check out Del.icio.us by looking at the TechTrek20 account that was created for this exercise. Note: In this account you will find lots of resources that have been highlighted or used throughout the course of the TechTrek 2.0 program.
3. Try clicking on a bookmark that has also been bookmarked by a lot of other users. Can you see the comments they added about this bookmark or the tags that they used to categorize this reference?
4. Create a blog post about your experience and thoughts about this tool.

OPTIONAL: If you’re up to the challenge, create a Del.icio.us account for yourself and discover how this useful bookmarking tool can replace your traditional browser bookmark list.

Part Two: Technorati

1. Take a look at Technorati's Advanced Search and try doing a search for “Library 2.0” in Keyword Search, in Tag Search and in the Blog Directory. Are the results different?
2. Explore popular blogs and blog searches. Is anything interesting or surprising in your results?
3. Create a blog post about your discoveries on this site.

OPTIONAL: If you're up for a challenge, learn how to tag your posts by with Technorati tags so users can find your posts on Technorati. Create a post about something. It can be anything you want. Then add the HTML code to the bottom to tag it as “TechTrek2.0.” You may also want to consider claiming your blog and creating a watchlist. (NOTE: When adding HTML code, you'll want to make sure you're in Blogger's Edit HTML tab.)

Technorati Tag: tags del.icio.us technorati