So since I’ve started using FireFox 3.x I’ve started to become obsessed with “tagging” and meta-data..
I’ve not stopped filing my bookmarks in the traditional (in my mind) tree manner that I’m used to, all bookmarks are filed in “unfiled bookmarks” but tagged according to subject matter (as defined by me) each bookmark can of course have multiple tags, so a Triathlon website can be tagged as “Triathlon, Sport, Swimming, Cycling, Running” which means Firefox then show it under each of those tags.
I’ve also spent some time going through some of the 5000+ photos I have and have started to add tags to them as well, location, event and where applicable person, with the use of iPhoto smart folders it is making finding pictures faster and saves me having to go back think where I was for a specific photo…
So that of course got me thinking, if tagging photos and bookmarks is so easy and useful, can I extend it to the OS, well I run OSX on all machines I come into daily contact with at a user level, OSX has spotlight (which I don’t use) and built in support for comments in files. I do however use quicksilver which is a tool I only really notice when I haven’t got it available on a machine (which is any machine that isn’t my day to day laptop!)
So having done some digging around on the internet I now have some quick and easy ways to tag files….
- Quicksilver tagging tip (key bit is cmd+g)
- Plugin: File_Tagging
- Metadata (switched Quicksilver to use & for tags)
Does this mean I can dispense with the tree like structure all of my files currently live, not sure…. but I might just try, so what I need now is time to start tagging my files, consistent tags across the whole OS and maybe a tool or widget (ohmygod – I disabled Dashboard on day 1!) that shows me all of the tags on my system, and maybe the quantity of items tagged.
I had held out some hope for tagbot but it seems to be a dead project.
Anyway I’ll create some new tags to go with this post 
and then of course tag any updates….