Tags and Categories
According to Wikipedia’s entry on tags), a tag is “a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information (such as an internet bookmark, digital image, or computer file).” So how do they differ from categories?
Differences between tags and categories
- Categories can be hierarchical, tags are not. That is, categories can have sub-categories, but tags do not have sub-tags.
- Categories are pre-defined, tags are not. Before you can put something in a category, the category must exist, but you can apply new tags to a post on-the-fly.
- Categories are broad, tags are more fine-grained. A post about typography that briefly discusses the font Garamond may be categorized under “Typography,” but tagged with any number of tags, including “Garamond.”
- Category names can be a few words, while tags are typically one word or possibly two.
- Categories are more useful for long, focused articles that are limited in number, while tags are more useful for large collections of wider-ranging articles.
It takes a while to get used to tagging—I am certainly still figuring out how best to tag articles, and whether or not to use categories as well.
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