Content Strategy for the Masses

Ok. The internet has a lot of information in it. A lot of this information is clutter that’s difficult for a search engine to navigate. So some websites are asking its users to tag images, words, music and other things to help populate search engines and make the internet faster… through games. Yay.

Google started this back in 2006 with Google Image Labeler. I just played it and you just have to keep entering in words you think would match the image on the screen. If you and your anonymous partner come up with the same tag, you get points.

Personally, I prefer Games With A Purpose. The games are really fun, as they’re focused on whether you’re a word person, a music person, a visual person, etc. Just don’t play it at work. The games are timer based and you might end up yelling at co-workers who innocently come up to your desk to ask a question. “Can’t you see I only have a minute left to describe this picture of a cow?!”

There’s also this relatively new one for corporate branding, Brand Tags. There’s no game involved – you just see a brand logo and type the word you think best describes it. I tagged Exxon “spilly.” 

Why is this important? Users are being asked to populate a service they use with the words and phrases they use and understand. Brilliant.