Will Tagging work???
John Battelle recently suggested that outside of photos and videos, tagging isn't going go big. He asks if he is wrong.
No, I don't think he is wrong at all.
I'm pretty new to this whole tagging thing. I recently signed up for a del.icio.us account, got my Firefox del.cio.us extensions, etc. and am giving it a try.
I've only been doing a short time, but already I'm asking myself: Why bother?
I can bookmark any page I want without any of this stuff. Admittedly, this is without tags, but to be honest, I'm not getting much value from the tags on my own bookmarks.
I do search for tags on del.icio.us and sniff around for what other people have tagged. Although, I must admit that when I do that, I feel like I'm reading their computer screen over their shoulder. Importantly, I never tag anything that I thought would in any way would reveal my intentions.
There is a serious free rider problem with these tagging schemes. I benefit from the collective tagging efforts of others, but I don't contribute tags to the links that are truly meaningful to me.
As far as his belief that click stream analysis will be big, he might be right. Which would be an unfortunate thing in my mind. It wouldn't surprise me if there was a backlash (or even better, an awareness) that prevented an individual's complete click stream from ever being consolidated to the point it could be monitized.
Sure, Google has lots of click stream data, and they monetize it effectively with AdWords, etc. But it's important to remember that their data is perishable. When I delete their cookie, I'm gone. Without a static IP, I could be any Comcast subscriber.
But what about Gmail, you might say? I don't use it. I've already gotten in the habit of dividing my click stream among different providers. I'll delete cookies often. Has my web experience suffered in any way? No. Not one bit.
John knows better than anyone about the Datbase of Intentions, so why does he think someone would willingly entrust their click stream to anyone? I'll go even further and assert that someones click stream shouldn't even exist outside of their own head.
No, I don't think he is wrong at all.
I'm pretty new to this whole tagging thing. I recently signed up for a del.icio.us account, got my Firefox del.cio.us extensions, etc. and am giving it a try.
I've only been doing a short time, but already I'm asking myself: Why bother?
I can bookmark any page I want without any of this stuff. Admittedly, this is without tags, but to be honest, I'm not getting much value from the tags on my own bookmarks.
I do search for tags on del.icio.us and sniff around for what other people have tagged. Although, I must admit that when I do that, I feel like I'm reading their computer screen over their shoulder. Importantly, I never tag anything that I thought would in any way would reveal my intentions.
There is a serious free rider problem with these tagging schemes. I benefit from the collective tagging efforts of others, but I don't contribute tags to the links that are truly meaningful to me.
As far as his belief that click stream analysis will be big, he might be right. Which would be an unfortunate thing in my mind. It wouldn't surprise me if there was a backlash (or even better, an awareness) that prevented an individual's complete click stream from ever being consolidated to the point it could be monitized.
Sure, Google has lots of click stream data, and they monetize it effectively with AdWords, etc. But it's important to remember that their data is perishable. When I delete their cookie, I'm gone. Without a static IP, I could be any Comcast subscriber.
But what about Gmail, you might say? I don't use it. I've already gotten in the habit of dividing my click stream among different providers. I'll delete cookies often. Has my web experience suffered in any way? No. Not one bit.
John knows better than anyone about the Datbase of Intentions, so why does he think someone would willingly entrust their click stream to anyone? I'll go even further and assert that someones click stream shouldn't even exist outside of their own head.
3 Comments:
Chris,
I have to say I agree with you. The reason I don't think tagging works is because there's nothing motivating to tag something. If people don't get something in return they won't take the time.
I'm fairly new to tagging myself, in the last year or so. It was fun at first to tag everything I bookmarked on del.icio.us. Now I find myself thinking it's a nusiance and I hardly do it, my bookmarks are lucky to get any tags at all.
On a side note: I've never read your blog until I followed your trackback from John's site. I'm impressed, I like your style of writing and I just added your feed to myYahoo!
Cheers!
take it from someone (http://del.icio.us/BillyG) that has almost 900 tags, I depend on my tags everyday and would be lost without them (yes, I run a script everynight to backup my del.icio.us tags) but this not only keeps the storage off my box, but more importantly, when I sam at a clients location and/or surfing ANYWHERE in the world, I can immediately get to all things that interest me (which is the other use, one glance, I know who you are and what you are into, not like Google of course, see AttentionTrust.org)
Anonymous (BillyG?),
Fair enough. You derive benefit from tagging and having them available while away from your computer is important.
Cleary you have an incentive to tag.
But your point about '...which is the other use, one glance, I know who you are and what you are into' sends chills down my spine.
For some this might be a benefit, for me it's terrifying. I don't know many of the details of AttentionTrust.org, but for now, my solution is simpler. Opt out.
This is just one element of a broader issue of identity and who controls it. There is inevitably some loss of control as you embrace new technologies, etc. and I'm prepared for that tradeoff. On the other hand, I'm not going to do anything that relinquishes more control unless the accrued benefits can justify it.
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