December 19th, 2006

Why do People Tag?

by Joshua Porter | 40 Comments | shortlink: http://bokardo.com/p/537

Gene Smith has a nice cheat sheet of this important article on tagging systems.

He quotes the article (which I had read quite some time back, but now with renewed interest)

“The motivations to tag can be categorized into two high-level practices: organizational and social. The first arises from the use of tagging as an alternative to structured filing; users motivated by this task may attempt to develop a personal standard and use common tags created by others. The latter expresses the communicative nature of tagging, wherein users attempt to express themselves, their opinions, and specific qualities of the resources through the tags they choose.”

It should be noted that some folks have much more strict rules governing their own organizational needs than others. For example, some spend hours organizing their del.icio.us tags into hierarchies, while others don’t. (I don’t). Some tag each and every one of their photos on Flickr, while others do when it suits them. (like me)

This, to me, is a very powerful benefit of tagging. You can do how much you want, when you want, according to any rules you want (or don’t want). And, because of the effects of scale in tagging, it’s still OK, and there will still be social value even if you aren’t comprehensive in your tagging.

So, why do people tag? Well, part of the reason might be that there isn’t a penalty for not tagging. Tell me I have to do something, and I won’t do it. Give me a choice, and perhaps some positive reinforcement, and I just might do it.

That’s how software should work. User first. System second.

Why do People Tag? |

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Update

The Value of Self-expression

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Comments

1. Daniel Szuc 6:25am, Tue 19th, 2006

I think it was Karen Loasby in an interview with Gerry Gaffney at : http://www.uxpod.com/index.php?post_id=151370 that services like Flickr and http://del.icio.us are for technical folks.

Its soooo true!

We sometimes forget, that although we are early adopters of these services, concepts like “tags” are too technical for many.

I am one user of Flickr who rarely enters tags.

I believe Tagging takes time, effort and care.

2. MH 10:21am, Wed 20th, 2006

A modified form of the question is: “Who tags?”

I am not yet convinced that tagging is used or understood by any other than the technically savvy.

But please feel free to convince me otherwise!

3. Cuneyt 11:30am, Wed 20th, 2006

MH: Good point, however, the same was said about most applications of new technology. The bottom line is that there needs to be a compelling reason for anyone to change their current practice, and it normally has to far outweigh the status quo. Not a linear improvement, but exponential one. When tagging brings value to, and aligns with the values of the non-technical, then they’ll shift. Inherently, Flickr and delicious are weak examples, because they target technical folks: bookmarkers and digital photo enhusiasts. A much more compelling and broad domain is the analyze the workplace in general, where computer use and savvy is abundant. How could tagging take off in this space? Not if their bosses enforced it, but if they were rewarded for tagging, on a personal level, be it by garnering leadership and recognition, or even compensation. It has to pay off on a personal level for people to adopt the change.

4. Jay Fienberg 5:47pm, Wed 20th, 2006

Part of the problem with looking at whether or not individuals understand “tagging” is that we’re actually looking at a bunch of different features / uses, not all of which are common in systems that support “tagging,” and not all of which are necessarily part of what makes tagging “tagging.”

For example, when tags are displayed, do they have to be clickable? If clickable, what is shown on the other side of that click?

In terms of what constitutes understanding tagging: does a user not understand tagging if she tags photos with keywords, but never clicks to see photos by other people tagged with the same keyword?

A mental model for how different people understand tagging systems would be very elaborate. And, that’s maybe the essence of the issue: tagging systems like Flickr are actually very sophisticated combinations of navigation systems, information design, hierarchy (taxonomy / ontology), hypertext, data entry / interaction design, information architecture, etc. That sophistication can benefit different users in different ways, and/or intimidate (or, be opaque to) different users in different ways.

5. Shimon 9:38pm, Sun 24th, 2006

You can do how much you want, when you want, according to any rules you want (or donâ€™t want)

part of the reason might be that there isnâ€™t a penalty for not tagging

That sounds very true for, as I seem to be very lasy when usually I need to save some bookmark, which is very usefull for me (usually i save around 5-7 bookmarks a day just reading blogs), and it still a very hard habbit for me to go to del.isio.us and save it there.But still I’m very thankful to those who use taging, because there where tons of times when tagging saved me hours of searching for something…I think that the only one thing i’m missing is search by tags in google all iver the internet – hopefully will see this feature soon already!

6. Ensure 1:31pm, Thu 28th, 2006

I think once tag is created it saves time and gives a better look.but it is useful only for technical persons.

7. Finanzguru 8:53pm, Fri 29th, 2006

At this time tag may be only for technical persons, but lets look 3 or 4 years ago. No one could imagine what a blog is, only for freaks, and so on…

8. Johann 10:02am, Sun 31st, 2006

I use tagging on my blogs, because it’s somehow easier and more useful than the old category-system. As said, you can do as much as you wanna do. Another pro is that you can use a “related topics”-plugin (for wordpress for example)

9. Daniel 7:13am, Sun 28th, 2007

We sometimes forget, that although we are early adopters of these services, concepts like â€œtagsâ€ are too technical for many.

Your are right, but as Johann mentioned ahead it is much easier to discribe the topic/content with tags as with a system of categories. in the end there is benefit vor all – your recipients and your content-organisation and usability…

10. Thomas Solar 1:31am, Tue 30th, 2007

Tagging is getting more and more popular. the reason in my eyes is because itÂ´s easy and usefull. also for the users who surf your site.

as Johann already mentioned there are many plugins now out of the different blogging system for tagging automatically (related topics).

this help the user to find the information he is interested in very fast.

Keep on Tagging

11. Videos Caseros Gratis 10:25am, Wed 28th, 2007

tagging is of great help form people, I think it is a very nice idea most social sites have it now.

good post

12. torrent 9:17am, Sun 25th, 2007

I am not yet convinced that tagging is used or understood by any other than the technically

13. Lacoste 12:07pm, Tue 24th, 2007

Well, torrent, I think it’s becoming more and more popular in the blog community. And bigger newssites also start to use tagging and other social media stuff like bookmarking.

And I wouldn’t ever ever start a new blog without tagging. Ever.

14. Mike 5:00pm, Fri 4th, 2007

Tagged sites are a great help for me, everywhere IÂ´ve been. ItÂ´s a nice thought.

15. Pozycjonowanie 1:18pm, Fri 11th, 2007

“And bigger newssites also start to use tagging and other social media stuff like bookmarking.”
I fully agree with this words. Alot of people use it not only on blogs but on web2. Greetings

16. yankee 6:41am, Tue 15th, 2007

tags are so ugly. this is a wrong way.

17. ksiÄ™garnia 1:58pm, Fri 18th, 2007

I just bookmarked your site cause you got some good stuff and you are someone to keep an eye on – good luck!

18. nec pbx 10:50pm, Wed 30th, 2007

I use tagging on my blogs, because itâ€™s somehow easier and more useful than the old category-system. As said, you can do as much as you wanna do. Another pro is that you can use a â€œrelated topicsâ€-plugin

19. Katalog 7:19am, Sun 10th, 2007

Maybe youâ€™ve seen fingerprint locks before, maybe you havenâ€™t. They seem like a good idea. After all, your fingerprint is supposed to be fairly unique (although, one fingerprint is not guaranteed to be unique, all ten combined are).
What ifâ€¦

20. gutschein 9:13am, Mon 18th, 2007

Can I translate this article and insert it in my German website?

21. buses 10:43am, Fri 22nd, 2007

Well your site is really really fantastic! My best compliment and good luck!

22. BoB 1:19pm, Thu 28th, 2007

This is a interesting article. I use tagging more and more.

23. RachunkowoÅ›Ä‡ 3:35pm, Mon 2nd, 2007

I completely agree with your opinion about tagging being a way of expressing one’s personality. It can be seen just as a kind of art, which expresses a part of our soul.

24. conservatories 12:35pm, Wed 11th, 2007