My view of the world
This photo was taken last year from our back yard. We live 16 miles from downtown but we still have a wonderful view of Minneapolis in the winter when the trees are bare. I am 20 minutes from work downtown but I still have a view of the city. We even have deer in the backyard. In my mind I have the best of both worlds.
The way Sturtz describes the way tagging works reminds me of a bubble sort programmers used years ago when they had to write a program to sort alpha or numeric figures. The decision was a tree with either a yes or no response. When we execute a search on Google, the sort takes place in the background providing the most reliable result. With YouTube or Flickr, the user is manipulating the sort each step of the way.
The tag of "perfection" can lead to a beach in Australia (nice photo), or a fancy car or a perfect meal. With each additional tag the tree of decision gets refined and leads the surfer closer and closer to their intended goal. Many times the surfer ends up at a location that was never the intended initial site. If my initial goal is perfection in a meal, I may end up researching the sandy beaches of Austrailia.
Comments
That is a really cool photo, I'm jealous...all I have for my view is a building. I think that tagging is a really interesting concept that tells a story to people that do not know others very well.
Posted by: Mark Mahan | January 28, 2007 8:46 PM
I really liked your metaphor of a decision tree to explain the process of modifying searches. I agree with you that sometimes you get something that is completely irrelevant to what you're trying to find on the internet. The only thing that can be done about that is to add more tag words to limit the search.
Posted by: Natalya Goncharova | January 28, 2007 9:19 PM
When searching the site Flickr, I too had a problem with finding the right pictures that I wanted to see. My view or discription of something could be completely different from what another person could view it as and I too found that a bit difficult at times.
Posted by: Kelly Colbert | January 28, 2007 10:30 PM