Another Word For It Patrick Durusau on Topic Maps and Semantic Diversity

November 21, 2018

Going Old School to Solve A Google Search Problem

Filed under: Bookmarking,Bookmarks,Javascript,Searching — Patrick Durusau @ 5:27 pm

Going Old School to Solve A Google Search Problem

I was completely gulled by the headline. I thought the “old school” solution was going to be:

Go ask a librarian.

My bad. Turns out the answer was:

Recently I got an email from my friend John Simpson. He was having a search problem and thought I might be able to help him out. I was, and wanted to share with you what I did, because a) you might be able to use it too and b) it’s not often in my Internet experience that you end up solving a problem using a method that was popular over ten years ago.

Here’s John’s problem: he does regular Google searches of a particular kind, but finds that with most of these searches he gets an overwhelming number of results from just a couple of sites. He wants to consistently exclude those sites from his search results, but he doesn’t want to have to type in the exclusions every time.

The rock-simple solution to this problem would be: do the Google search excluding all the sites you don’t want to see, bookmark the result, and then revisit that bookmark whenever you’re ready to search. But a more elegant solution would be to use an bookmark enhanced with JavaScript: a bookmarklet.
…

The rest of the post walks you through the creation of a simple bookmarketlet. Easier than the name promises.

When (not if) Google fails you, remember you can either visit (or call in many cases) the reference desk at your local library.

Under the title: Why You Should Fall To Your Knees And Worship A Librarian, I encountered this item:

I’ve always had a weakness for the line:

People become librarians because they know too much.

Google can quickly point you down any number of blind alleys. Librarians quickly provide you with productive avenues to pursue. Your call.

December 6, 2010

Survey on Social Tagging Techniques

Filed under: Bookmarking,Classification,Folksonomy,Tagging — Patrick Durusau @ 6:37 am

Survey on Social Tagging Techniques Authors: Manish Gupta, Rui Li, Zhijun Yin, Jiawei Han Keywords: Social tagging, bookmarking, tagging, social indexing, social classification, collaborative tagging, folksonomy, folk classification, ethnoclassification, distributed classification, folk taxonomy

Abstract:

Social tagging on online portals has become a trend now. It has emerged as one of the best ways of associating metadata with web objects. With the increase in the kinds of web objects becoming available, collaborative tagging of such objects is also developing along new dimensions. This popularity has led to a vast literature on social tagging. In this survey paper, we would like to summarize different techniques employed to study various aspects of tagging. Broadly, we would discuss about properties of tag streams, tagging models, tag semantics, generating recommendations using tags, visualizations of tags, applications of tags and problems associated with tagging usage. We would discuss topics like why people tag, what influences the choice of tags, how to model the tagging process, kinds of tags, different power laws observed in tagging domain, how tags are created, how to choose the right tags for recommendation, etc. We conclude with thoughts on future work in the area.

I recommend this survey in part due to its depth but also for not lacking a viewpoint:

…But fixed static taxonomies are rigid, conservative, and centralized. [cite omitted]…Hierarchical classifications are influenced by the cataloguer’s view of the world and, as a consequence, are affected by subjectivity and cultural bias. Rigid hierarchical classification systems cannot easily keep up with an increasing and evolving corpus of items…By their very nature, hierarchies tend to establish only one consistent, authoritative structured vision. This implies a loss of precision, erases differences of expression, and does not take into account the variety of user needs and views.

I am not innocent of having made similar arguments in other contexts. It makes good press among the young and dissatisfied, it doesn’t bear up to close scrutiny.

For example, the claim is made that “hierarchical classifications” are “affected by subjectivity and cultural bias.” The implied claim is that social tagging is not. Yes? I would argue that all classification, hierarchical and otherwise is affected by “subjectivity and cultural bias.”

Questions:

  1. Choose one of the other claims about hierarchical classifications. Is is also true of social tagging? Why/Why not? (3-5 pages, no citations)
  2. Choose a social tagging practice. What are its strengths/weaknesses? (3-5 pages, no citations)
  3. How would you use topic maps with the social tagging practice in #2? (3-5 pages, no citations)

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