Caffeinated Gonzo!

I have been asked by more than one person lately what is the purpose of the tags at the bottom of weblog posts (like this one) and other web pages? Tags are a loose means of organizing content on the web and relating it back to other similar content.

Where does this concept of Tags or "tagging" on the Web come from? Tagging primarily centers around a concept called folksonomy. As described on Wikipedia:

A "folksonomy" is a collaboratively generated, open-ended labeling system that enables Internet users to categorize content such as Web pages, online photographs, and Web links. The freely chosen labels – called tags – help to improve search engine's effectiveness because content is categorized using a familiar, accessible, and shared vocabulary. The labeling process is called tagging. Two widely cited examples of websites using folksonomic tagging are Flickr and Del.icio.us.

Ripped straight from the pages of Wikipedia. Read more of their article on Folksonomy here.