My OperaTry "BlinkList" for better bookmark/favorites organization
Friday, April 28, 2006 5:01:05 PM
I'm in the habit of constantly adding links to the IE favorites list, and as a result my favorites list has become overwhelming large. It's at the point where, after something gets added, it's never again found.
Recently I have become more aware of the power of the "Tagging" pattern. Examples of tagging as pattern can be found in photo album applications (e.g. Adobe Photoshop Elements), as well as in other types of information management software.
In a nutshell, this is how tagging compares to the traditional approach of a hierarchical organization of information, using the IE Favorites List as the example: In my favorites list I have, over time, created many, many folders in a deep hierarchy. Whenever I add a new link to my favorites, I have to decide which folder to save the message in. Having to do this decision making is problem number 1; it's just too time consuming. Problem number 2 is the fact that you can only add the link to 1 folder at a time. Problem 3 occurs when you need to find that link again in the future ("now, which folder did I add the link to?").
Using a tagging system, you could add all links to a single folder. Whenever you add a new link, you would attach one or more tags to the link, conceptually storing the same link in many "folders".
Problem 1 above is reduced since associating a link with a tag is much easier than having to browse for the most appropriate folder. Problem 2, of course, is removed. Problem 3 is greatly reduced, because by associating multiple tags with the link, I increase the chance of finding the link at a later point of time.
I believe the tagging pattern is very powerful and have decided to start looking for replacements of my most used information managers (e-mail, RSS, news, file system, etc.). This means that Outlook, FeedDemon, XNews, etc. all have moved into the "danger zone".
The first victim is the IE favorites list, as I today found out about http://www.blinklist.com. BlinkList is a free, web based bookmark manager that takes excellent advantage of tagging. I quickly signed up, and contemplated importing all of my favorites items before deciding to take a more selective approach. As of right now, I have reviewed all my ASP.NET, CSS, web design, etc. related links and added them to the new manager.
Take a look at http://www.blinklist.com/TorLanglo for the result.
Recently I have become more aware of the power of the "Tagging" pattern. Examples of tagging as pattern can be found in photo album applications (e.g. Adobe Photoshop Elements), as well as in other types of information management software.
In a nutshell, this is how tagging compares to the traditional approach of a hierarchical organization of information, using the IE Favorites List as the example: In my favorites list I have, over time, created many, many folders in a deep hierarchy. Whenever I add a new link to my favorites, I have to decide which folder to save the message in. Having to do this decision making is problem number 1; it's just too time consuming. Problem number 2 is the fact that you can only add the link to 1 folder at a time. Problem 3 occurs when you need to find that link again in the future ("now, which folder did I add the link to?").
Using a tagging system, you could add all links to a single folder. Whenever you add a new link, you would attach one or more tags to the link, conceptually storing the same link in many "folders".
Problem 1 above is reduced since associating a link with a tag is much easier than having to browse for the most appropriate folder. Problem 2, of course, is removed. Problem 3 is greatly reduced, because by associating multiple tags with the link, I increase the chance of finding the link at a later point of time.
I believe the tagging pattern is very powerful and have decided to start looking for replacements of my most used information managers (e-mail, RSS, news, file system, etc.). This means that Outlook, FeedDemon, XNews, etc. all have moved into the "danger zone".
The first victim is the IE favorites list, as I today found out about http://www.blinklist.com. BlinkList is a free, web based bookmark manager that takes excellent advantage of tagging. I quickly signed up, and contemplated importing all of my favorites items before deciding to take a more selective approach. As of right now, I have reviewed all my ASP.NET, CSS, web design, etc. related links and added them to the new manager.
Take a look at http://www.blinklist.com/TorLanglo for the result.
