Google inconsistencies in design
In their defense, consistencies among different applications may not be a valid complaint (like why the new top bar doesn’t show up in reader… and where’s reader search?) But one thing that I don’t get is their usage of “tags.” Is it a tag? Is it a label? Is there a difference? Reader has two options for organizing: add tags and add to a folder. However, they both end up with the same result… folders in the sidebar. It’s somewhat misleading, I think. Docs & spreadsheets represent tags as folders as well, where gmail chooses “labels.”
When I think of tags, I think of a N:N relationship, which means I typically tag something with multiple tags at a time. That’s exactly what they let you do, but I don’t necessarily want my feeds and files to be strung out across multiple folders. To me, folders are more of a 1:N relationship. From all aspects of a folder, there’s not one thing that says N:N relationships exist. In a file system, do you keep your files in multiple folders? Probably not. But if you could tag your files, would you give them more than one tag? Most probably would. It’s all fine, I’m just making a point (and probably being too critical). It was obviously intentional, so I’m sure they have very logical reasoning behind it.
And on a side not, after seeing the new interface for docs & spreadsheets, I would much rather have folders than labels in gmail.
Chris Friday, 29 Jun, 2007 Posted at 08:00AM
In some sense, a folder is nothing more than a specific case of a tag relationship. Plus, in *nix-based environments, you can keep files in multiple folders (sort of) through the use of symbolic links. But still, I think the term folder generally implies 1:N, and Tag/Album/Set/Collection would be better for describing what’s really going on.
Of course, even you have an overlapping implementation on this site: categories and tags :-)
Ryan Friday, 29 Jun, 2007 Posted at 09:52AM
In my very first effort, I only had categories. I thought it would force me to focus on where the post really fit, but I had a hard time when it made sense in two, three, or four categories equally. So I added tagging. And that’s where the overlap began. Since then, I’ve concluded that I don’t need categories anymore. But it’s hard for me to wipe out existing data for some reason… I’m a pack rat in that sense.
I’m the first to admit that I’m a terrible “tagger.” I’m too inconsistent with how I tag—it’s too easy and nonchalant. The next redo will just be paragraphs of text with a date and a search.