T.ag.s

As if the word “tag” didn’t already have enough meanings – “An informal playground game involving chasing and touching; a play in baseball; graffiti, or more specifically the signature used by graffiti artists; a vehicle registration plate; the annoying white piece of paper hanging off of my mattress which is apparently a federal offense to remove,” (to name a few), now there’s yet another use for the word – “A keyword or term associated with or assigned to a piece of information.” I haven’t done much with tagging, but thanks once again to Commoncraft’s great video tutorial series (this week it was “Social Bookmarking in Plain English”), I understand the general concept. That said, I then visited Del.icio.us and that understanding was completely thrown out the window. Honestly, I didn’t really get what it was I was looking at. It seemed confusing to me (I’d much rather stick with Google – I can find just about anything I’m looking for.) Plus, while I appreciate the idea of having a list of great sites which can supposedly be accessed from ANY computer (unlike bookmarks which are computer-specific), after reading several other librarian’s blogs I learned that certain software has to be installed on that computer in order for Del.icio.us to even work. This can be problematic at places like universities and libraries where they don’t allow patrons to install software on the public computers. There goes Del.icio.us’ usefulness. Anyway, I’m sure that tagging has its benefits – to quote the “Plain English” guy, “It can make order out of chaos” – but I guess I need to better familiarize myself with it in order to really appreciate the full potential. Until then, pass the Google, please!