I think I discovered the use of tags when I started to use del.icio.us. It was so nice to be able to give more than one category or characterization to something. For an information addict like myself, it was the perfect solution for keeping track of all the snippets in my information horde.
Ever since I learned about the possibilities with combining categories and tags for blog posts, I have been eager to implement tags on my blog. The idea is that you have fewer categories, but more tags. The two-level taxonomy is supposed to give you more flexibility and avoid a long, long category list on your blog page. Definitely a good thing in my opinion!
To get these tags for my blog posts, I wanted to add the Ultimate Tag Warrior plug-in to this blog. There was no version for the WordPress 2.1 that I had installed, and when things didn’t seem to work after just 15 seconds (the amount of time I allocated to the task!), I set the tweaking aside for a rainy day. Then I got a bad cold. Then work happened. And then I heard about WordPress 2.2 – with tags – coming out soon, but slightly delayed. At that point, I decided to wait. I am not nerdy enough (read “don’t have time!”) to bother with the UTW configuration only to have to upgrade and perhaps throw out that hard work just a few weeks later. I am quite happy to wait a few more weeks for 2.2.
In the meantime, I could satisfy my urge to tag with Thunderbird 2.0.0.0 when I upgraded to that version this week. The feature called labels is gone, obviously replaced by tags. Instead of having only Important, To Do, Personal, Work, and Later as your only labeling options, you can now add your own tags! And they are so easy to add. This looks like an opportunity to really gain control of my inbox! Oh joy! A heartfelt thanks to all those hard workers in the Thunderbird community who built this free mail program and added tags. 🙂
I’m really eager to add tags too. I haven’t used Thunderbird, but I might try it sometime. When WordPress 2.2 comes out with tagging, it will be a big step forward. I’m not entirely clear how I should use tags. I assume they are more granular than categories, but is that it? Do you have a list of tags written down so you don’t end up using synonyms for the same tags? Do you use the same tags as Technorati uses so you can boost better technorati rankings?
I’m also assuming a better Related Posts plugin will emerge based on tags?