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I see them all the time and always ignore them. Can someone explain to me why they have become so prevalent? If I'm using a site that allows me to explore it via tags (e.g., this one, del.icio.us, etc.) that's what I will do. Why would I need a "cloud" of tags upon which to click? I can just type that tag(s) into a search box. What am I missing?
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A tag cloud (also known as a word cloud, wordle or weighted list in visual design) is a visual representation of text data, which is often used to depict keyword metadata on websites, or to visualize free form text. Tags are usually single words, and the importance of each tag is shown with font size or color.
Word clouds (also known as text clouds or tag clouds) work in a simple way: the more a specific word appears in a source of textual data (such as a speech, blog post, or database), the bigger and bolder it appears in the word cloud. A word cloud is a collection, or cluster, of words depicted in different sizes.
A tag is a word or phrase that describes the topic of the question and helps categorize the question with other, similar questions. Tags help connect experts with questions they will be able to answer, by sorting questions into specific, well-defined categories.
A tag cloud is a bunch of tags placed together each of them marks a page or a category. So you should think of it as just a list of links.
It's more of a browse assist than a search assist. If you see a large or bold tag in a tag cloud that interests you it my lead to some knowledge discovery that wouldn't have otherwise been sought out with a deliberate search. When I am browsing del.ico.us or stackoverflow I appreciate the tags as they sometimes lead me to discover related topics.
Wikipedia has an interesting definition:
A tag cloud or word cloud (or weighted list in visual design) is a visual depiction of user-generated tags, or simply the word content of a site, used typically to describe the content of web sites. Tags are usually single words and are typically listed alphabetically, and the importance of a tag is shown with font size or color. 1 Thus both finding a tag by alphabet and by popularity is possible. The tags are usually hyperlinks that lead to a collection of items that are associated with a tag.
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It's a easy mechanism to determine which tags are most popular or how dense that tag is populated ( amount of tags).
It's just a intuative interface, I'm fairly certain that's one of the bigger reason's why they are so popular, that and they are very Web 2.0 also.
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