Joho the Blog
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June 19, 2007
I was just on a panel at the Endeca user conference where the co-founder, Pete Bell, asked: "Resolved, tag clouds are the mullet of the Internet." I enjoyed it, and it started a good conversation. My view: Sure, they're sometimes used just because they're "in." But they can also serve a real purpose. Jim from Buzzillions pointed out that a tag cloud, when users understand it(as most don't, apparently) implicitly says "This is your data." And, of course, there are places where tag clouds are just plain useful. Still, it was an amusing way of posing the question. Posted
by D. Weinberger at June 19, 2007 04:03 PM
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Comments
Because tag clouds do "serve a real purpose," attractively or not, I think they are in fact the comb-over of the internet rather than the mullet.
Posted by: steve | June 19, 2007 04:58 PM
What is the purpose they serve? They are essentially a list in alphabetic (or some other order) with the most important/relevant words shown larger. The alternative is to show a list with the most important/relevant at the top. What do you get by putting this list into a tag cloud format?
Posted by: Shaun | June 20, 2007 07:44 PM
I find the tag cloud useful in determining whether I've written too much about a particular subject. I think they're more for the blog writer than the blog reader.
Posted by: Ms. Tart | June 21, 2007 03:51 PM