August 02, 2006
Tags. The feature that is number one on every Blogger blogger's wishlist. If it is not at the top of your list, then please tell me what could possibly be more important in this Web 2.0 world we live in. And I don't want to use some silly hack like this or this, I want built-in support.
The guys working on Blogger will figure this one out soon enough. I mean, if I didn't have faith in them in them, I should've just gotten myself a Wordpress blog, right? But noooo, I just had to go get myself a Blogger blog. I still don't know why I didn't go for http://rubetube.wordpress.com (not a working URL). It should be simple enough since they have an import-from-Blogger tool. But right now, it's too soon to give up on Google (and it's too soon to spam my friends again to tell them about another blog when this one barely has any entries). Perhaps in the far future, if (not when) I become as famous as Robert Scoble (who uses Wordpress).
(And I will never use Windows Live Spaces, a.k.a. the MySpace wannabe.)
When (not if) tagging is integrated into Blogger, I boldly predict that the feature will be called "Labels", in true Google fashion. "Categories" is probably a good candidate as well. "Tags" won't work because they're used in templating.
But to be honest, I must confess that I'm not used to the whole concept of tagging (even if I am an avid user of del.icio.us). I'm terribly OC when it comes to consistently naming tags. Right now, it annoys me to no end that I have a tag called "parody" and another one called "oldies"; shouldn't they both be pluralized (or maybe not)? And how much different is "nostalgia" from "oldies"? Tagging becomes too much of a chore at times. Maybe the Blogger team is coming up with a feature that analyzes the contents of an entry (only available to blogs in English during beta) and then automatically assigns them tags that are consistent with those used by the rest of the blogosphere. Heck, maybe I should write this nifty program (and win an award or two).
To summarize, I began this entry clamoring for the addition of a tagging feature, and ended with an emotional critique/bashing of the tagging process and a proclamation that will most likely never come to pass.
The guys working on Blogger will figure this one out soon enough. I mean, if I didn't have faith in them in them, I should've just gotten myself a Wordpress blog, right? But noooo, I just had to go get myself a Blogger blog. I still don't know why I didn't go for http://rubetube.wordpress.com (not a working URL). It should be simple enough since they have an import-from-Blogger tool. But right now, it's too soon to give up on Google (and it's too soon to spam my friends again to tell them about another blog when this one barely has any entries). Perhaps in the far future, if (not when) I become as famous as Robert Scoble (who uses Wordpress).
(And I will never use Windows Live Spaces, a.k.a. the MySpace wannabe.)
When (not if) tagging is integrated into Blogger, I boldly predict that the feature will be called "Labels", in true Google fashion. "Categories" is probably a good candidate as well. "Tags" won't work because they're used in templating.
But to be honest, I must confess that I'm not used to the whole concept of tagging (even if I am an avid user of del.icio.us). I'm terribly OC when it comes to consistently naming tags. Right now, it annoys me to no end that I have a tag called "parody" and another one called "oldies"; shouldn't they both be pluralized (or maybe not)? And how much different is "nostalgia" from "oldies"? Tagging becomes too much of a chore at times. Maybe the Blogger team is coming up with a feature that analyzes the contents of an entry (only available to blogs in English during beta) and then automatically assigns them tags that are consistent with those used by the rest of the blogosphere. Heck, maybe I should write this nifty program (and win an award or two).
To summarize, I began this entry clamoring for the addition of a tagging feature, and ended with an emotional critique/bashing of the tagging process and a proclamation that will most likely never come to pass.
Labels: Blogger, del.icio.us, rant, Web 2.0
I really like my Windows Live Spaces blog. I'm not so impressed with Blogger as I don't think Google really "gets" blogging and they don't seem to be doing much with it.
The reason I like Blogger (and to a certain extent, Wordpress) is it's "hackability". I like the fact that Live Spaces has all these neat built-in modules, but for me, I prefer a neat and simple blog whose appearance I can customize. I feel that all the Live Spaces look too much alike.
My first impression of Live Spaces was really bad because it felt slow (at least on Firefox, and it slowed down my PC too) and the first few random blogs I looked at really looked like crap. But after looking at some more blogs (including yours, which looks great!), I will rescind my remark on never using Live Spaces and change it to: "I might use Live Spaces for a second blog." :-)
An open mind is all I can ask for.