Facebook brings tagging to the masses
Posted Saturday, June 2, 2007 at 4:30pm in Technology |
I’ve long been a fan of tags/tagging. They’re a great way of categorising, organising and searching for content. The two platforms I tend to use in association with tags are del.icio.us (my account) and in blog posts for Technorati (although, little traffic is generated to this blog from T/rati to be honest). However, I’ve always thought of tagging to be a little on the geek side and never thought the concept would get past the less technologically enthusiastic of people. Last I heard, del.icio.us only has around a million members. So I reckon I’m safe in saying that tags aren’t used by the average internet user. Until now.
A great social point of Facebook is the ability for members to tag their friends (other members) in their photos which inturn adds the photo in the tagged person’s profile. You may think “so what”. But the very fact that ordinary internet folk are seeing the benefits of tagging and becoming used to ‘tagging’ as part of the vocabulary is a big plus point. Even if half of Facebook’s 25 million (and growing exponentially) members become used to the concept of tagging then it’s a big move forward. Also, Facebook is the largest photo uploading site in the States (the UK too I bet) so says the pedia that is a wiki. There must be an awful lot of tagging going on.
Now, what can be done for RSS?
Bonus link: In related news, Facebook’s opening a UK office in August and is in the process of setting up commercial deals with 15 UK brands so says NMA (sub reqd).
technorati tags: tags, tagging, facebook
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3 Comments
Brian J
Monday, June 4, 2007 at 5:20am
Despite the host of criticisms people have of Facebook, it does seem that the networking tool is initiating an entire generation into the formerly-exclusive blogging world.
Like you say, getting college kids (myself included) famiarized with concepts and terms makes this area of the internet less mysterious, opening it to new populations and expanding the already-vast idea marketplace in the blogosphere.
Good post…
Stephen
Monday, June 4, 2007 at 9:51pm
Thanks Brian.
Kirsten Lee
Tuesday, June 5, 2007 at 3:38am
I am a senior PR student in the Grady School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. As a college student, and avid facebooker I can speak to what the Facebook has brought to the college community on both a social and academic level. Especially as the facebook now moves into its newest version with what is known as “applications” where profiles have really become a forum to speak on political and social causes. Just as Facebook has introduced me into the basics of social media it has also shown me the dark side of this new age of PR and technology. I continually ask my professors and practitioners working in the field of social media when will all of this go to far? When will the Facebook allow us to see too much? Or the internet for that matter. I understand we control what we put out there but often times we don’t. Someone could be on the facebook with clues and details about their life and actually not have a facebook account. As a student in the world of PR and social media I am just wondering when will we try to somehow regulate or develop internet ethics.