Glossary

Welcome to the glossary! Here you’ll find a comprehensive list of all the tagging terms that I use (and in some cases invented) on Tagamac.

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

B

browsing
using tags to find related items
see also: tag cloud, tag recipe, and tag tree

C

collaborative
tags are created, searched, and browsed by many people
collaborative tagging is one of the more popular ways to tag online
synonym: folksonomy
cumulative
tags are browsed/searched with AND searches; the more tags you have selected, the more precise your results
example: searching for all items that are tagged with both “task” and “unfinished”

F

flat
tags have no explicit relationship
antonym: hierarchical
see also: tag cloud

H

hierarchical
tags have an explicit parent-child relationship
tags are organized in a branching tree from general to specific
antonym: flat
see also: tag tree

P

private
tags are created, searched, and browsed by a single individual
the most common type of tagging in desktop software
public
tags are created by a single person, but searched and browsed by multiple people
public tagging is common on blogs; Tagamac’s tags are a public tagging system

S

searching
using tags to find specific targeted items
also called “filtering”
see also: saved searches
SLS
acronym for succinct, lowercase, singular
more info: tagging best practices

T

tag
a word or short phrase that describes something
a small piece of flexible metadata that can describe any attribute of the item it is attached to
tagging
attaching a tag to something
maintaining pool of tags (renaming, organizing, adding)
tag cloud
a list of all available tags, often weighted
flat, sometimes cumulative
tag recipe
a browser that focuses on cumulatively browsing tags
tag recipes narrow available tags based on which tags occur on the same items as previously selected tags
similar to finding a recipe by starting with a single ingredient and then adding related ingredients
tag tree
a hierarchical list of all tags
tags have explicit parent-child relationships

W

weighted
tags that show their relative frequency, usually through color or size