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Tag vs. Search
Aug. 25th, 2005 11:08 amThe newsletters I write are archived on our website.
Currently, you can select issue date to see all the stories written in that issue.
You can select company name to see all stories tagged with that company.
You can select topic to see all stories tagged with that topic.
You cannot search.
I just had a conversation discussing this with the boss person. He wants to use tagging because it doesn't turn up false positives.
I argued in favour of replacing the tagging system with a search window, because I believe that search is good enough these days that the false positives are rarely a problem, and with tagging, if you forget to tag it or didn't think of tagging it for topic A when it included topics A, B, and C, you simply won't find that article.
But then I thought about how useful tagging has been on livejournal. Then again, has tagging been "so useful" because we don't have a real search function? I must admit that tagging on LJ has been somewhat frustrating for me because I don't have a list of tags I've used before handy, and I keep on making variations of the same ones. With a fresh document at work or on LJ, there are a bazillion different applicable topics with which I could tag. I could sit there brainstorming for several minutes and come up with a huge list of possible tags for any given article or post. I find this frustrating, even stressful, and at work, I find it to be a waste of my time (not that my time is at that much of a premium, but the truth is, I don't want to do it; it's tedious and frustrating).
In many ways, tagging vs. searching is like the difference between folders in a traditional email application, and search on gmail. A lot of folks tell me that they don't miss folders, because gmail's search function works so well.
So, I'm wondering what you guys think. If you were going to choose one as the reader, which would you choose? Tagging, or searching? Obviously, both could be implemented, but does the tagging really add that much value, to be worth the amount of time and effort it would take to add the tags?
Let the debate begin!
Currently, you can select issue date to see all the stories written in that issue.
You can select company name to see all stories tagged with that company.
You can select topic to see all stories tagged with that topic.
You cannot search.
I just had a conversation discussing this with the boss person. He wants to use tagging because it doesn't turn up false positives.
I argued in favour of replacing the tagging system with a search window, because I believe that search is good enough these days that the false positives are rarely a problem, and with tagging, if you forget to tag it or didn't think of tagging it for topic A when it included topics A, B, and C, you simply won't find that article.
But then I thought about how useful tagging has been on livejournal. Then again, has tagging been "so useful" because we don't have a real search function? I must admit that tagging on LJ has been somewhat frustrating for me because I don't have a list of tags I've used before handy, and I keep on making variations of the same ones. With a fresh document at work or on LJ, there are a bazillion different applicable topics with which I could tag. I could sit there brainstorming for several minutes and come up with a huge list of possible tags for any given article or post. I find this frustrating, even stressful, and at work, I find it to be a waste of my time (not that my time is at that much of a premium, but the truth is, I don't want to do it; it's tedious and frustrating).
In many ways, tagging vs. searching is like the difference between folders in a traditional email application, and search on gmail. A lot of folks tell me that they don't miss folders, because gmail's search function works so well.
So, I'm wondering what you guys think. If you were going to choose one as the reader, which would you choose? Tagging, or searching? Obviously, both could be implemented, but does the tagging really add that much value, to be worth the amount of time and effort it would take to add the tags?
Let the debate begin!
