I am Singaporean (IaS): see what people are saying right now on Technorati
http://technorati.com/tag/iamsingaporean
Technorati Blog Directory use tagging method to index blogs on the same subject (tag).
Tag is similar to "Natural Language" in Indexing Term or "Identifier" in ERIC Thesaurus. Individual blogger may use any term(s) or phrase(s) to tag the posts. With the tag (category) created by the blogger, Technoratic is able to auto-classify and organize the posts.
Tags are not "Control vocabulary" hence you may find similar topic with different tags used in different blogs/postings:
Here are some examples:
search iamsingaporean in tags
108 posts tagged “iamsingaporean”
http://technorati.com/tag/iamsingaporean
search i am singaporean in tags
25 posts tagged “i am singaporean”
http://technorati.com/tag/i%20am%20singaporean
As most of the bloggers do not tag their posts, you will find many other blogs/ postings if you search the same term(s) or phrase(s) in Blog posts instead of tags.
For example:
search "I Am Singaporean" in blog posts
return with 31,335 results from all blogs
http://technorati.com/search/I%20Am%20Singaporeansearch
"IAmSingaporean" in blog posts
return with 106 results from all blogs
http://technorati.com/search/IAmSingaporean
The search results are the same even if you used Capitalise Words/Letters.
What is the learning here:
Tag is similar to subject heading in library book catalogues or online databases. Books in the libraries/databases can be searched using subject headings, yet not all the books available in the book shops or on the Internet can be searched that way.
Likewise, only those blogs that are tagged can be searched that way. To search using tags is more accurate in matching Topics of your choice. Nevertheless, if you do not wish to miss any posting, search alternate term(s) and phrase(s) in all blog posts too!
For a more comprehensive search, use the Advanced Search page at Technorati (http://technorati.com/search/) to search by Keyword, Website URL, or Tag. Just fill out only the fields you need and leave the rest blank.
Keyword Search Enter a word or a "phrase in quotes" to see all blog posts that contain your word or exact phrase.
URL Search Enter the URL of a website to see blogs that link to it and what they say.
Tag Search Enter a category like Sports or Books to see posts, photos, and links on that subject. Separate tags with "OR" to search multiple subjects.
Blog Directory Search Enter a category like Photography or Technology to see blogs about that topic.
Happy searching!
