Toluu, everyone’s favorite blog recommendation application, has released a powerful new feature: tagging.
Tagging is a ubiquitous element of Web 2.0. As content creators and consumers add tags, everyone benefits. Things are easy to find, and there’s fun in clicking those tags – you never know what you’ll discover. I’m also a fan of the idea that tagging illuminates someone’s interests. Know someone’s tags, know their interests. A look to the right side of this blog shows the areas that I like to cover. As Toluu founder Caleb Elston has previously noted:
Tagging is super powerful. A few simple words can bring a ton of order and new usefulness.
And Caleb has followed up on that observation with powerful new tagging features in Toluu. Here is what’s new:
- Tag Tab: Clickable tab for each blog page in Toluu, with several tag related features
- Explore by Tag: every tag is clickable, leading to a list of related blogs
- Inline Tagging: Instantly tag a blog right from a list of blogs
- Users’ Tags: See the tags that a user has applied within the Toluu application
All in all, the features bring a new level of sophistication and community-generated perspective to the blog recommendations. Let’s check ‘em out.
Tag Tab
The tag tab is chock full of information for every blog listed in the Toluu system. Here’s a screen shot for this blog:
Tagging: The top of the Tag Tab has an entry box for entering new tags. A couple of notes:
- Tagging is multiple word, comma separated. Yes!
- Tags are auto-suggested, based on tags you’ve used before. This is a great feature. It makes it easier to add tags, and enforces consistency, which is so important in tagging.
My Tags: These are the tags you have already applied to a given blog.
Top Tags: These are the most popular tags applied by others to a given blog.
Related Blogs: Each Tag Tab includes a list of related blogs. These are blogs that share similar tags to the ones applied to a given blog. This makes discovering a bunch of blogs with a specific area of focus very easy.
Follow the Bouncing Tag
In fact, it gets even easier to find blogs with a specific focus. Just follow a tag where it takes you.
Notice the nice distinction above? You can see blogs with specific tags applied by anyone in the system. Or you can take a deeper dive, and see what someone you trust has tagged.
Sorting: There are four different ways to sort the list of blogs by tag:
- Popular = blogs are ranked by the number of times they received a particular tag
- Recent = sort by how recently a specific tag was applied to a blog
- Subscribers = sort by the number of Toluu subscribers to a blog
- A-Z = alphabetical
Inline Tagging
To make tagging easy and pervasive, inline tagging is supported.
As you look at your list of blogs, you can quickly tag them. I like this because it makes the tagging process fast and easy. I don’t have to go to each individual blog’s page inside Toluu to add tags.
User Profiles Now Have a Tag Story
All this tagging by users has another benefit. You can quickly see what someone is all about when you visit their profile in the Toluu system.
This is great. Toluu isn’t a full-fledged social network, but you can use it to find like-minded people. From these like-minded people, you can discover other blogs of interest.
The tags of a user are essentially a form of self-identification. Like declaring what political affiliation you have, or saying where you work. This at-a-glance insight into someone’s interests is a great way to figure out new people to follow inside Toluu.
Are You Toluu-ing Yet?
Caleb and his team have done a really great job with this new functionality. A lot of attention was paid to ease of use, and the subtleties of information discovery. He has built in the notion of discovery via the collective wisdom of crowds, or discovery via trusted information filters.
Toluu continues to innovate. Click here to see all posts tagged ‘toluu’ on this blog. It’s an impressive list of activity.
If you’re on Toluu, follow me at http://www.toluu.com/bhc3. I’ll follow back. And if you’re not yet on Toluu, I’m happy to email you an invite. Just leave a comment.
Nice job Caleb!
