Week 6, Thing #14: Technorati and Tags or Which Prince Did You Mean?

When I keyword searched for school library learning 2.0 I got more than 406 hits that displayed posts that were about schools, library and learning. When I clicked on the blogs tab, I found 21 blogs about "School Library Learning 2.0" that were blogs similar to mine (a place where people completed web 2.0 things) or devoted to exploring the relationship among school libraries, web 2.0, and education via new web 2.0 technologies that crop up frequently. Most of the 406 posts and 21 blogs were relevant to our study of web 2.0 and school libraries, whereas all the posts tagged "School Library Learning 2.0" (yet there were just three) were relevant. Overall, the advanced keyword search feature of Technorati produced a good deal of relevant results.

I checked out the top 5 blogs of Technorati and was immediately attracted to Lifehacker, tips and downloads for getting things done. It's a blog about how to utilize web "apps" applications to help you simplify your life and "get things done." I liked this post about Google web apps because it reminded me of when I discovered Google reader (see Week 4, Thing #8: It's as simple as RSS!).

An obvious advantage to tagging is that it organizes all types of information. Tagging enables authors and readers to organize their websites, blogs, online newspaper articles, and pictures with any label they desire. These self/user-imposed labels allows readers to organize information in a manner that is convenient for them, in a taxonomy written in their own language. With tagging, my Prince (the musician or The Artist Formally Known as The Artist) links will not mix with Machiavelli's The Prince links nor with my Prince William of Wales links--unless I want them to. Herein lies the disadvantage of tagging, because I am free to tag any piece of information with any label I want even if there is no clear relationship between the tag and tagged item.

Even though tags are a double-edged sword, sifting through it all is an exercise that sharpens my information finding skills.