Internationale Zeitschrift für Fortschritte in der Technologie
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Exploring the Interaction between Users and Tagging Systems on the Web

Chuttur M Yasser

With tagging becoming an increasingly important social phenomenon, some researchers view the tags supplied by users as a useful tool for helping individuals find relevant information on the web. Other researchers, however, still question the utility of tags in information retrieval systems, contending that tags are only relevant for the individual user supplying the tags. In this paper, we argue that tags are, in fact, the result of an interaction between the user, the tagging system, and the resource being tagged. Using Web Content Analysis, we analyze 33 websites that support tagging and identify the structural features (interfaces) that allow a user to tag a resource. Findings show that depending on the features supported by tagging systems, tags may either represent the information content of a resource as viewed by individual users only or they may be the result of a collaborative effort from a group of users.