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January 7, 2006
Social Bookmarking
Recently discovered the world of del.icio.us, an effort to improve discovery of relevant links using Tags. I'll attempt to make an analogy to better explain the concept. For those of you who are familiar with graffiti or graff writing, the term 'tagging' (aka bombing) was an artistic expression of the artist. What they were thinking at the time or what moved them. They used spray paint or alcohol and carbon paper to express their views artisticly. So, if you 'tagged' the 5 train while in the railyards and it rolled from Dyre Ave (Bronx) to Franklin Ave (Brooklyn), you've instantly spread your story in three boroughs.
Well, fast forward to the internet and its collaborative and social network. You can share your most treasured bookmarks or favorites with the community at large. So when the technorati and del.icio.us sites work fevererishly to index these tags or bookmarks it essentially helps bridge the gap and fosters information exchange. Perhaps an even more practical use of the del.icio.us system is to quickly access your most helpful bookmarks anytime and anywhere.
For all the good that Google has bestowed upon us, it does not index tags at all. In fact, Google could probably care less about tagging in general, because their focus was to dominate the search engine market not index blogs and the thoughts and ideas contained therein.
I happen to agree with Doc Searls, as he stated in a recent podcast. It's probably a good thing that Google doesn't care about it now. Thus folks at Technorati and Del.icio.us can work very hard to get this stuff done correctly without getting swallowed. Healthy competition is essential to keep Google benevolent.
Posted by AG at January 7, 2006 12:24 AM