ErikPersson.com

As you can see the The Journal section has been updated.

The biggest update you’ll find, besides the theme change, is the addition of Tags. You can find these at the bottom of each of my posts and on the sidebar on the right. Now the first question is what are tags? They’re another form of categorization. But don’t I have categories to categorize my posts? Yes but some search engines prefer Tags.

So whats the difference between Categories and Tags? Categories work like a folder structure. How do you classify a Dog? First you figure out if its a mammal, then see if it belongs to the order Carnivora, after that you see if it belongs to family Canidae. If thats all true then you check if it belongs to the genus Canus, whereupon we get to the species C. Lupus which then takes us to our old friend Canis lupus familiaris. Whew, that explanation was long winded and obtuse. Basically categories are straight lines. You also see this type of structure with the filing of documents in meatspace and on your computer. C:\Documents and Settings\Erik\My Documents refers to a folder that is located on the C: Drive within that drive you have the sub-category Documents and Settings, within this Folder we have the User profile Erik, and within that we have the folder My Documents.

Tags, or labels if you use a Google product, on the other hand are descriptive. What kind of dog is it? It’s a big furry red dog with a tennis ball in its mouth and muddy paws. Pretty descriptive, no? If somebody told you to look out for that animal you’d be able to spot it rather quickly. Likewise this article falls under the Tags: Announcement Categories Geek Google Internet Life Model Site Spiffy Tags Tech Tips WordPress Writing

As you can see Tags and Categories have diverse uses in computer technology and in real life. As such both Categorization methods work to make it easier for you to find interesting and meaningful content.