When Web 2.0 Tags Beat Search Keywords

Via a 9rules note, Scrivs posed the question: Why do you use Technorati? In the note, he states "If I'm going to search for a term it is pretty much always going to be on Google." That made me think about the differences between traditional (web 1.0 keyword, for lack of a better term) search engines like Google and newer (web 2.0 tag) search engines like Technorati. Technorati's more than simply a tag search engine. The point, though, is that tag searches are different from keyword searches. One case where I think web 2.0 tag searching beats web 1.0 keyword searching is in the case of events. Because time is a factor and keyword search engine results tend to be pretty static, it's often more useful to search the tags. I suppose this is what Technorati founder, Dave Sifry, means by the "World Live Web" in relation to tags.

Consider a TagSummary for these event-related tags: codemash, romecamp, lotusphere, lotusphere2007, dld, dld07, blogparteeh07. It's useful to follow an event across multiple web 2.0 sites - blogs on Technorati, photos on Flickr, etc. Doing a keyword search on Google for dld is, for obvious reasons, not going to be too helpful in tracking the DLD Conference event.

Following an event via tags works best when a single tag or a core set of tags are agreed upon prior to the event. For instance, I notice on the DLD Conference site this message: "If you are blogging or uploading images to your favorite photo sharing site, please consider using the following tag in your posts: DLD07"

Are there other cases where tag searches are more useful than keyword searches? BTW, if you want to tag your blog posts, try the free TagBuildr tool. ;-)

Apogee Tags: technorati tags, web 2.0, dave sifry, scrivs, 9rules, tagging events