Tagging

I searched W.B.Yeats and found 1,820,000 hits in google but 265 entries in eQuest. When I searched W B Yeats as a subject in eQuest I got 173 hits. Tagging in web and cataloging to me are just indexing methods. In web, the indexed page number just got replaced to urls. I remember when I took a metadata class in library school, we need to write a paper on the topic. I had no idea about metadata. Even if the professor said to me in Chinese I would have had no clue, much less in English. I still remember I was looking for Chinese translations for the term at that time and the only definition I remembered about metadata is that it is data about data -- huh??? After I actually worked in a library and became a friend of a metadata librarian, I graduatelly understood what metadata is. I think those tags for any search engines are just components of metadata. I am now off topic. Anyway, I like shopping and analogies. So tagging is like labels in department stores of each product and metadata is like the signages of different units in the store. For example if I want to buy a petite top. I need to look for the following tags. Macys --> Petite Dimension --> Tops section(oh well, no tag for that but when you see the clothes you would know). Tags are not like subject headings. They are just keywords. Being a keyword has its pros and cons. On the one hand you can find so many hits that has the tag you are looking for , on the other hand, the results may overwhelm you before you find your own tagged item. But people can just add more tags to their searched tags to narrow down the result. Now I got to a point about not sure what I have just said in here -- my two cents:P

RSS and information overloading

RSS is a great tool to get updated information. I have created both bloglines and google RSS account but I like google more. From a usability perspective, it is intuitively designed and since I have been using google for many years so the look is familiar. RSS enables people to select different news categories that interest them and get updated information on issues they are concerned.