Search Engines || Information Architecture

Wordpress Tag-an-Object, originally uploaded by Janne L.

One of the biggest issue with the use of tags is the fact that their users have the tendency to create a large number of items to describe the content and in the end you will end up with a unique tags for each piece f content they are creating.

In general this happens because the users forget their previous tags.

Wordpress has tried to limit this behavior through 2 elements:
- autocomplete: once the user starts typing, the associated tags will start to appear eliminating misspellings and guiding the user to previous tags
- most popular tags: this appeals to the lazy user that writes about the same content periodically. Replacing typing with mouse clicks is a winner

Beside the Google Books Settlement, Google Books is one of those Google projects that doesn’t receive too much attention despite of its usefulness. But, apparently things are about to change. This year, Google Books received a new, and more useful, interface, ability to create different shelves to categorize your books and I’m getting more and more results on regular searches. Another enhancement, is posting items from user created shelves to the user’s Google Profile.

Most likely, this will be a project that will receive more and more prominence in 2010.

Just read a great summary of the tricks that you can do on your Facebook fan page in order to increase both user interaction and satisfaction. The “12 steps to creating a compelling Facebook Page” article is aimed to both starters and to those that have some experience with Facebook fan pages.

The tips I liked the most and were totally new to me were these:

7. Create a custom navigation sidebar – A few months ago, I showed you how to add an interactive sidebar to your Facebook Page. This is a creative way to help visitors find exactly what they are looking for on your Facebook Page.

and

10. Import your YouTube videos – Check out the application called YouTube Video Box. It includes an integrated search to find videos on YouTube and a Tab where you can display videos from YouTube. You can also import videos from an existing YouTube.com account.