
Stupidest Web Feature Ever Created: Tag Clouds - waleedka
http://www.techquilashots.com/2007/04/01/stupidest-web-feature-ever-created-tag-clouds/
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Alex3917
Bar Graphs aren't good for visualizing landscapes. Pie Charts aren't good for
understanding physics.

It's a visualization. It's good for certain things. It's bad for others. I
have seen tag clouds used very well, for example here:

<http://chir.ag/phernalia/preztags/>

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waleedka
I tend to agree with the author, and I find tag clouds too cluttered. Some
might argue that it's a good way to see what the web site/blog is about, but
sure there must be a better way to do that. If my blog is mostly about, say,
technology then you can easily see that from the blog name, tag line, or the
titles of the top two posts. I cannot see why tag clouds got so popular!!! Am
I missing something?

~~~
bootload
' _... if my blog is mostly about, say, technology then you can easily see
that from the blog name, tag line, or the titles of the top two posts. ...'_

One thing in favour of tag-clouds I've found is they are finer grained. If the
knowledge domain is 'foo' you can quickly work out how the vocab is skewed to
a particular subject. This is useful, unless they are spammed.

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waleedka
Sure, but is it worth the noise it adds to the site? And do visitors actually
see anything but the top 2 or 3 words?

~~~
bootload
_'... is it worth the noise it adds to the site? ...'_

On the front page, maybe not. I tend to use the maps less regularly than every
day. I check the entire vocab, not just the big words (though they do stick
out). You're making a fair point though. I had the same beef with the ruby on
rails image maps where they take up space & are indecipherable (to me anyway).

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rms
Sometimes they're useful. I really like Pornotube's tag cloud.

