Tag clouds, those folksonomic “heat maps” you see on Flickr and Technorati, are becoming increasingly popular. And while some people, like Jeffrey Zeldman, compare tag clouds to mullets, I think they have their uses.
And here are two easy ways to add a tag cloud to your blog:
Use a Plugin
If you use Textpattern to publish your blog, you can add a cloud of your categories using the *dml_tags* plugin from Daniel Mota Leiva. The site and the instructions are in Spanish. You can view the translated page using Babel Fish Translation, but I’ll save you the trouble. Here’s how to use it:
First, get the plugin. You can grab it here.
After installing the plugin in Textpattern, you’ll need to paste this code snippet where you want the cloud to appear:
The tag can take three attributes:
- *Path:* Put the path for your categories here.
- *Close:* Use this for any closing characters.
- *Title:* Add the text to display in the title tag.
For example, my dml_tags code looks like this:
There are other plugins available if you’re not using Textpattern, such as the WordPress Heat Map plugin.
Use TagCloud
If you can’t find a plugin for your blogging software, use TagCloud. TagCloud can create a tag cloud from any RSS feed. You can create a tag cloud just for your blog, or display a tag cloud by compiling multiple feeds. You can link to TagCloud to view your cloud, or cut and paste a code snippet to display it on your site. TagCloud is useful, flexible, easy to use and free.
Setting up your cloud is easy, but in my experience, it took several days before my clouds were populated (once active, your cloud should be updated several times a day). You can see my TagCloud on the Looking for Something? page, or on the TagCloud site. (Note: I ditched the TagCloud when I redesigned the site for WordPress.)
Tag clouds may be the mullets of the web, but even Zeldman acknowledges that their “smartness is why so many have rushed to use them.” Navigation menus are ubiquitous too, but that hasn’t diminished their usefulness.
Thanks very much for shedding light (at least to me) on this plugin.
Cheers
You’re welcome.
As an addendum, I noticed after installing this plugin in the narrow column on the right that it broke my layout in IE 6 on Windows (I have to fire up Virtual PC to check things). I had to add this CSS to fix it:
.tagcloud {font-size:50%;}If you add this plugin, be sure to check your layout.
Bleh! They are useless and smack of “chart junk.” And those -10 point fonts are just a joy to read.
Hopefully, this flavor of the month with have a rapid death…
I like the idea, but I agree the implementation is so-so. I think I’ll do a test with Crazy Egg and see if anyone actually uses mine.
I signed up for the TagCloud account a couple of weeks ago. Added my blog and another blog that I read faithfully to get a sense of what the clouds would look like.
Neither blog that I added has any data associated with it yet and when I wrote to the TagCloud folks to ask them for help, I received no so much as an acknowledgement, let alone any kind of help.
I know they’re in beta right now but, still, you’d think they would at least answer an email with some kind of explanation.
Anyway, not ranting about your blog post, just offering an update for those who may find this post and think to themselves, “Ah, cool.. gonna go get mine now!”
Um… no you’re not, cuz it’s broken! :-)
Hello,
I am the developer of MakeCloud. TagCloud is no longer working, but MakeCloud provides a similar offering (with less setup). Check it out:
http://www.makecloud.com
tags are cool, but if use them in smart way. You don’t need 1500 tags on page - just 5..10. Less is best.