Tag Clouds

Tags are metadata keywords that are applied to things. And a Tag Cloud is a collection of tags, often with the most frequenty-used tags being highlighted in some fashion. For example, here’s the tag cloud for my library, and the tag cloud for my photographs.

 

Tag clouds can be used to show aspects about the things being tagged that might not at first be apparent. For example, here’s a particularly interesting use of a tag cloud that varies over time. The collection that has been tagged is a collection of speeches made by US Presidents, dating from 1776 to the present day. By moving the slider to alter the date, you can see which are the key words (the Tags) used in a speech made at the time.