If you look at the bottom of most of the posts here, you'll notice Technorati Tags. Basically, these tags are a user-generated taxonomy - a user-created classification system, if you will. While a blog's tags (or categories) enable readers to find related content within the blog, Technorati tags enable them to find related content on other blogs.

Before we delve further into tags: What is Technorati?

The simplest way to put it is that it's a blog search engine. Most blogs software can inform other services that the blog has been updated. This is done through a process called pinging. For example, I post an entry here. Automatically (because it's been configured), the blog pings Technorati to say, "Hey, I've got new content!" Technorati picks up on this and indexes the post.

This is where the tags come in. Sometimes, a post may be about a certain subject but may not contain the key words which people may use to search for that content. Another example: I can blog about IVLE but never mention "Learning Management System" - which is what IVLE is. I tag the post with the words "Learning Management System" so that Technorati can classify it.

This system isn't perfect. Unlike a library which has fixed classifications, bloggers can tag their posts with almost anything. Still, some tags are better than none. Also, other Web 2.0 services like del.icio.us (a social bookmarking service) employ folksonomy in a collaborative way. When you try to bookmark a tag, the service suggest some related terms and also shows you what others have labelled it. Hence the tags gain more relevance.

Back to Technorati: You can search for blog content via Technorati by a normal search of a blog's content or searching specific tags. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Technorati allows you to see who's linking to your blog, track new content via keywords or tags and monitor the number of mentions of specific search terms over time, among other things.

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