Tag Integration

u r the business model
Originally uploaded by benbarren.

Michael Parekh has a 'neat' article on tagging which delicious investors are linking to ;) "There's no question tags can be very useful, but two things have to happen first for them to be truly mainstream :

1. Users have to clearly "get" it...that is, have an "aha" moment that says "of course, that's how I can use this stuff both as a web user and a blogger".

2. It has to be Flickr-like simple to use, both in terms of tags on web-sites everywhere, and on your own blog.."

A VC's response is as always : 1. Good 2. Advertisement for del.icio.us - where Fred promotes openness in blogging platform, just wonder whether it will be a 2 way street with delicious being open, easy to export etc (I hate that it is hard to d-tag within RSS readers without grease monkey extensions) ".. I want del.icio.us integration, I want better Flickr integration, I want better Technorati integration, etc, etc.."

Mr Fractals of Change's post is also interesting : It shows how hard and technical it is, to integrate tags into your Blog (on WordPress) Companies that solve this (and open industry standards) will assist make the total market so much bigger, as users wont need computer science degrees and a venture fund to invest the time and skills needed to be a tagger. It's like graffiti, buy a texta, find a train...