Tags and Tagging 101

[mandy]

Another type of tagging, which I am calling "publisher tagging," is similar except the creator (or "publisher”) of the content is the one that places the tags. Rather than allowing users to freely create and manage tags, the publisher may choose to use tagging to make searching for content easier. As opposed to a social bookmarking site, which simply links to other content on the Internet, the actual content providers often find it more useful to tag their content so users can find relevant content more easily. A great example of this is the photo-sharing site Flickr, which allows its users to post and share photos. The person that is sharing the photos can "tag" each one with a series of keywords, and the result is that Flickr users can search for photos based on the tags from the publisher.

So why is any of this useful? For the ecommerce business owner, public tagging and social bookmarking sites may not offer much in the way of product marketing. However, if you publish articles in your trade, or offer any kind of content that is useful to your customers, you should consider submitting that content to as many social bookmarking sites as you can. Be aware, however, that most social bookmarking sites have very refined conditions of use, and submitting product pages or blatantly commercial content will often not be tolerated...

full article: http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articl...s-Tagging/

[BellisimaJ.]

I love tags------they really make organization and searching so much easier when used properly.