Tag, You’re It

Remember EPIC? Well, there is a new thing that seems to be spreading along the internet rather veraciously that could make EPIC closer to a reality. It’s called tagging. Being on Salon.com, you will have to view an advertisement if you don’t have an account. It’s hard for me to explain tagging, but essentially, you list keywords related to your hobbies and interests and these “tags” get digested by software that will then match you up to everybody else who shares those same “tags”. You know, like Amazon has that “People who bought this item also bought these items” thing.

I just joined 43Things.com — which is a site that publicly lists your goals/hopes/dreams/desires as tags and lets you see who else shares the same thinking as you. Coinencidentally, Amazon is behind 43 Things. What does that mean?

I think it means that something like EPIC could be more of an inevitable reality than we think. I agree with my colleague, Budi, when he says that Amazon could be using 43Things to bolster sales. How? If you sign up (for free) on 43Things and then post a couple “things” for yourself, Amazon could then “suggest” some products, books or whatever to you so that you might accomplish those things. Rather clever, really.

Certainly, 43Things (or tagging in general) means more than simply being a ridiculously robust and integrated advertisement. I think it does. More and more, the internet is making this world phenomenally smaller. With tagging, I believe it is going to get even smaller. The world is becoming more social. More of a community because of things like this. I don’t personally know “sonofgroucho”, but I do know he shares my goal of getting more people to read my blog.