Medium got Tags right

Long ago, Gmail introduced us to tagging, and from then on, a lot of internet applications supported tagging and left it to the user’s interpretation on how to use it. I don’t think they ever really understood the actual use of it. People just mindlessly added tags without really knowing why they were. Let’s look at some of the most popular applications and how tags are used on them.

1. Gmail

I would say it’s the non-taxonomic architecture of Gmail that makes it the most powerful email platform. The flexibility it brings to manage and organize email, not only inside Gmail but also for 3rd party services to build on, is simply amazing. Not to mention the most powerful search. It’s brilliant.

But as a user, I struggled using labels for the longest time. I used to apply multiple labels to emails based on topics, thinking it will be easier for me to find them later. I had a very long list of labels at one point but search was the only thing I had to do to find any mail. Later, even Gmail changed the label metaphor to folders and left the technicality of labels for developers and advanced users.

2. Twitter

Tags or Hashtags in Twitter is used to mention a topic of discussion on a tweet. It’s especially useful when a lot of people are tweeting about the same topic at a given point of time. On other days hashtags are mostly used by the media and brands to trend or advertise something. Twitter picks up these hot trending topics in a location and shows them on the home page sidebar. So, there is no point tweeting with a one-off hashtag.

3. Facebook

It’s a fad. Nobody knows why they put hashtags on Facebook posts.

4. Instagram

The most notorious one for the abuse of tags. It’s my wife who told me that adding tags on Instagram pictures gets more likes. I didn't believe it at first, but all the weird and mindless hashtags people stuff into their photos made me wonder. Obviously I didn't want to shove in stupid tags but I tried adding some meaningful ones (#beach, #sand, #water, #blue) and did seem to be working as I started getting more engagement from new people. Later I tested this with some pictures with only tags like #myfavoritedestination #nancyandme #waterislife etc and saw that they got no engagement whatsoever.

Hashtags on Instagram are keywords to describe your pictures as much as possible so that the system can understand the image content and recommend them to people with similar interests in the search tab. It also helps when people search. Hence the engagement. So, there is no point stuffing in those weird tags that only you understand; they only make your post look ugly. Also I think Instagram should allow me to follow tags and not just users.

5. Medium

Medium starts with asking me to follow tags or topics that I’m interested in. Then it recommends stories on my home page based on the tags and the people I follow. I can tag my own stories with a maximum of 5 tags. This restriction, along with the tag suggestions that show the number of followers the tag has, help me to pick the right ones so that my story reaches the right audience.

As a user, I think, Medium has the most meaningful implementation of Tags. Finally someone got it right.