This is a screen shot of my tag cloud on del.icio.us, and it shows in point-size relationships the weight I have given specific tags in my “favorites” collection. If you are just seeing this tag-cloud phenomenon for the first time, I advise that you click around the blogsphere, there are some robust and exciting ones out there. To see my live tag cloud, go to my page here:

What is quite nice about tag clouds is that the numeric emphasis is translated into simple visual cues of point size. Tag clouds are actually an information graphic. That is, the tags “Flash” and “design” are important to me, and you can immediately see that just by looking. In the case of my tag cloud I have added the number of occurrences so you can see how the point size is weighted by the frequency.

So why is this compelling? Well, I think it is visually tantalizing, and seduces some clicks, but it also gives a fuller window into the purpose and elegance that is del.icio.us. Recently dubbed “Folksonomies” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folksonomy ), del.icio.us is one of many popular collaborative labeling efforts that tries to categorize and give common nomenclature to emerging memes. Or in terser language: folksonomies name what’s cool.

Why do I find del.icio.us interesting? Because it is as if there were a whole bunch of eager people naming the things they care about, and I find, with pleasure, that their words for things teaches me almost as much as the things themselves.

A great description of the advantages, explained in readily understood language, can be found here:

http://www.intuitive.com/blog/interview_with_experts_whats_so_cool_about_delicious.html