Tree, funny, to_read, google: what are tags supposed to achieve? a comparative analysis of user keywords for different digital resource types

Social tagging systems have become increasingly popular over the past years. Users' tagging practices have been little studied and understood so far. However, understanding tagging behaviour can contribute towards a thorough understanding of the tagging phenomenon from multiple perspectives. In the present paper, results of a comparative analysis of tag characteristics on the tagging platforms connotea.org (scientific articles), del.icio.us (bookmarks), flickr.com (photos), and youtube.com (videos) are presented. Results show that differences in tagging behaviour can be observed for different digital resource types. Finally, a short discussion of the possible implications of the results for the design of future tagging systems is presented.

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