The bloggers and their readers usually do know what are "tags clouds". This feature visible on some websites displays a selection of the most frequently used keywords tagged (that's why they are called "tags") in blog posts or articles. Tags can also be the most searched for words. In general, the most popular tags appear either in the form of characters set in a bigger size, in bold or in a special color whereas less popular tags tend to appear with no particular emphasis. The more the tag is prominent, the more it is popular.
Tags can be compared to a form of website categorization. In the Web 1, Internet content was sorted in predetermined categories (or topics). Formerly, in order to appear in one or another category a website had to be referenced in a web directory or a vertical portal and linked to an existing category. If one of the categories was missing the website could not be sorted out, or the website editor had to ask to the directory's administrator to create a new category. Yahoo built its early succes on this idea that the web should be organized in a centralized way.
However, this approach revealed to be finally inaccurate with reference to the dramatic explosion of content published on Internet. Often, the webmaster submitting a website had to face the "misc." or "unclassifiable" category syndrome since the limited space of a web directory could not propose an unlimited number of categories or sub-categories that would harm to its ergonomics or usability. It's the eternal problem of the never ending branching trees.
The popping out of the "tags" concept represents a real paradigm shift! Tags are not defined in a central way (by an administrator of a directory) but by the websites editors themselves.
Indeed, it is the blogger who defines the categories related to the content to be published (blog post, note or article) in this new approach. A dedicated field in the edition form allows him/her to connect a series of keywords related to the content of the note. These words are chosen 'ad hoc' by the editor according to the topics developped in his/her article.
We are definitely in a Web 2.0 and contributive logic with the tags system.
With this decentralized system of categorization, we introduce the idea of a vast ecosystem of keywords on a global linguistic scale which can be potentially "captured" (indexed) by the search engines, provided their technology allows it. Blogdimension.com. is now one of these systems indexing the tags.
Instead of getting sucked into designing categories artificially and centrally which is a pure non-sense if we consider the Web is live, we, at Blogdimension, chose to implement a technology allowing to recognize and to index not only the links of the articles and blog posts but the tags as well. The retrieved tags are stored into a special database and counted. The more often a tag appears, the more it is listed at the top!
So, we get a long list of tags sorted in decreasing order of frequency.
The "tags cloud" represents a limited selection of the most popular keywords assigned by the bloggers to their articles or postings and found in our index!
The "tags clouds" can vary from a search system to an other since each brand has its own sorting formulas which are often an industry secret. Some search engines propose a "hit parade"-type of listing, some other do not propose anything.
One can clearly perceive the semantic power of these "tags clouds" and their statistical role since they allow to carry out trend analysis of the content published. It makes it possible to know the topics most favored by the bloggers. Moreover, on the other side, one can imagine to collect and analyse the most clicked through or searched for tags in order to get the reading tendencies. There's just one step to be able to follow up the consumer trends!
"Tags clouds" are valuable tools for all those who need to take some sense out of the Web and the blogosphere: communication, advertising, intelligence agencies, marketing departments, political parties... In short, it is a function essential to all kinds of trend setters.
A "tags cloud" is a momentary snapshot of the blogosphere. The clouds can even be compared following various criteria: in the timeline, according to a profile of users, with regard to particular events, sociological criteria or seasons.
As a start, Blogdimension has implemented the tags cloud feature on its English, French and Spanish versions. But, this feature will be soon extended to other Blogdimension linguistic versions like the Chinese or Japanese ones.
It is at the same time funny and curious to compare the "tags clouds" between several linguistic spheres. For example, English speaking users are much interested in topics related to technology, business and entertainment. The French speaking ones like to write and post about society, Christmas (now) and political questions. The Spanish speaking ones tend to be attracted by downloading, computers and of course the picturesque... Hugo Chavez!
If you are a professional and are interested in trend analysis, watch or intelligence activities do not hesitate to get in touch with us. We perhaps can propose you our services and (anonymous) data. Our index is rich of thousands of millions of links and tags pointing to blogs, microblogs, images, podcasts, videos and opinions from the blogosphere.
Blogdimension's "tags cloud" is a smart way to feel the pulse of the Web 2.0 and listen to its heart beat!
Thanks for your support,
The Team
"Nuage de tags": French version
"Tags cloud": English version
"Nube de tags": Spanish version
It's done! The smart and fully customizable multi-search engine Zuula.com displays now also Blogdimension's blog results!
