Folksonomy
From The Glossary of Digital Photography
Also known as socially created classification scheme. A user-created classification scheme, usually for images. This system is used on popular websites, such as Flickr.com, to tag images. Individuals add their tags or keywords to each image. This system works well for some purposes. One advantage is that many minds are coming up with new descriptive names. A disadvantage is that, because there isn't a controlled vocabulary, the same tag is not necessarily used on similar images. Users can create new words and new tags; they are not limited to existing ones. So, for example, one photograph can be tagged with car, a similar one with auto, and a third with automobile. Doing a search on any of these terms will not bring up all three images. See also controlled vocabulary
