Jeff Huang
ABSTRACT
Users on Twitter, a microblogging service, started the phenomenon of adding tags to their messages sometime around February 2008. These tags are distinct from those in other Web 2.0 systems because users are less likely to index messages for later retrieval. We compare tagging patterns in Twitter with those in Delicious to show that tagging behavior in Twitter is different because of its conversational, rather than organizational nature. We use a mixed method of statistical analysis and an interpretive approach to study the phenomenon. We find that tagging in Twitter is more about filtering and directing content so that it appears in certain streams. The most illustrative example of how tagging in Twitter differs is the phenomenon of the Twitter micro-meme: emergent topics for which a tag is created, used widely for a few days, then disappears. We describe the micro-meme phenomenon and discuss the importance of this new tagging practice for the larger real-time search context.
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Index Terms
- Conversational tagging in twitter
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Reviews
James H. Bradford
Social media is undoubtedly an important new cultural phenomenon, yet the following question remains: Will it become a vital part of our social infrastructure, or is it just a passing fad__?__ Much work is being done to analyze and comprehend the dynamics of social media. This paper examines the tagging aspect of massively multi-party conversations that arise spontaneously in Twitter. In this context, tagging is the assignment of arbitrary labels to Twitter postings (tweets). Other users embed these tags in their own tweets through an informal cooperative social process that helps identify unique conversations. These conversations may involve thousands or even hundreds of thousands of individuals over a period of days or weeks. The authors argue that conversational tagging's unique statistical properties distinguish it from traditional archival tagging. The new technique makes it possible to identify and study conversations that arise in the social environment defined by Twitter. This research will be of interest to computational linguists, ethnographers, social psychologists, cultural anthropologists, and others who study social media. Online Computing Reviews Service
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