Amazon is integrating user tagging into product pages (see image below).
Tags are public by default and can be managed under a “your tags” area that I am failing to find. You must first select a “Real Name” (odd choice of names given the old company called RealNames). Once you’ve signed up and started adding tags, you can delete them or make them private in the management area.
Amazon tags will make it easier for you and others to find relevant content. I wonder how they are going to handle spam tagging and other bad content, though?. Another, possibly more interesting feature would be to allow publisher tagging. The tags would likely be more relevant (and spam easier to track).
See Richard MacManus for more on Amazon Tags.
Hey Mike, do you know anyone from the old company called RealNames?
BTW, I’m glad Amazon is another company that validates the vision that user/author tagging is the true search paradigm while keyword searching (which is perl era) is on the way out.
Ed - yeah, I thought that was funny. RealNames liquidated, but the trademarks are owned by someone…oh yeah, us!
Hi Mike:
This is definitely a great validation of tagging by one of the biggest online player. While tag spam will be challenge to address, tagging will definitely make searching way more relevant than just keyword search, which is so compromised right now, with affiliate/partner sites that are SEO-ed ranking way higher than the actual brand name site that a user is looking for (Refer: http://www.problogger.net/arch.....on-google/)
Lets see how Amazon’s push to tagging and the user response to this feature drives greater momentum for tagging overall.
-Vaibhav
Wow, so it’s really happening. The mainstream site embracing folksonomy :). Kudos to Amazon on integrating this kind of ’sorting’ system. I think we can find a more relevant search next time
Sullivan and the SEW crew will be forced to rethink their stance on tagging. Stubbornly they are the final holdouts.
Step up Danny!
dude, i am sorry but this thing is total crap - and don’t get me wrong, i’m not talking about the way it works(although “tagging” ain’t yahoo’s idea, it came around before dewey’s decimal system…sick of the whole newly repackaged spin, and any more ways to use rss and i’m gonna HURL!)…what i’m bothered by is the lookalike cultural problem that this presents…do you really give a rat’s ass what i’m putting together in my fantasy purchasing list? and if i’m not buying it for you, then what am i really doing for you? creating more want? promoting an even more ridiculously covetous society rife with recently re-hired techies currently swimming in debt? yahoo is heavy in youth culture with 360 and i’m concerned that they’re promoting the wrong path…good lord, the older i get the more ridiculously conservative i sound, huh? gotta run, think 700 club is being webcast at aol today - the episode where old dude is hopped up on inhalers and gets a chubby talking about evil bankers and lenders…
Can’t really agree with Dave Carpe, not withstanding the social concerns which are a whole different discussion… it’s all about the user participation, lots of folks telling you what they have, like, don’t like, etc. Better than getting spin from the manufacturers and Amazon has been winning w/ users’ participation for years. Thinking about replacing your bicycle, your TV, shed for the backyard? Keying into a really good system that provides reasonable results and commentary is a time saver for anyone inclined to do a little research. None of this is really new, but the interesting thing to me just how completely Yahoo is remaking themselves into a web 2.0 house
oh yea, tag spam, shouldn’t be a problem if the job was done right, even if it pops up it should be squashable and removable leaving no residual.
I had 167 tags yesterday, but today they were gone. I hope they plan on bringing the tags back, otherwise, what is life worth living for? LOL
I had way too much fun organizing my 1,000 product wish list into tags.
I don’t mind if the tag shows up on the product page, in fact, I only care that my tags come back and live on my about-you-area page again by the time I wake up tomorrow.
Sigh.
Uh - the “Your Tags” area that you couldn’t find is at the end of the link to the left of your red arrow…
If enough regular users utilize the tag feature, it should help make spam less relevent - by force of numbers.
Amazon Tags have gone poof! bye bye
I’ve just checked and tags are still available when I use my PC. The strange thing is that they don’t appear when I use my Mac. I’m using Firefox with both. Go figure.
I hope Amazon decides to keep tags and extend them into the world of Mac. Tags seem to yield better recommendations compared to the “old fashioned” way Amazon has done it.
This is cool. It works.
I’ve been looking for a way to make our content on http://www.wulffmorgenthaler.com searchable. I’ve been thinking of tags a few times but thought that spam would be too heavy a burden. I think I’ll try and implement it now. I guess Amazon helped convince me a little.
Tagging will definitely make searching way more relevant than just keyword search, which is so compromised right now, with affiliate/partner sites that are SEO-ed ranking way higher than the actual brand name site that a user is looking for.
Now I need tags to organize my tags. The most fun
I’ve ever had online. My tags are my brain
on internet.
I’ve just checked and tags are still available when I use my PC.
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