Standardizing tags for band names at SXSW 2006

You might recall that I wrote a post back in November (Standardizing tagging, tags) that talked about the inconsistency’s with tag names. For example, if you go to Technorati and do a tag search for “web2.0”, you will get different results for “web20” and “web+2.0”. Essentially, they all are the same thing but, because people tag different from one another, there will always be some inconsistency.

Over at shadows.com they put together a list of all the bands that are going to be performing at SXSW (over 1,200) this year and suggest a tag for each band name. This is a pretty cool thing for bloggers and the media who will be attending SXSW in Austin, this March and writing about it.

How would you tag a band with a name like I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness? It turns out that the most common answer is not iloveyoubutivechosendarkness, it’s chosendarkness. Similarly, the most common tag for SXSW itself is not sxsw06, it’s sxsw2006.

This list from Shadows will make a great guide for the Record Labels as well.

Now, if only, someone would come up with some sort of “plug-in” that would make suggestions for standardizing tag names. Del.icio.us has a great recommendation feature for when you’re tagging your bookmarks but it would be cool if all of the other “tag based” web products would as well.

technorati tags: tags, web2.0, web20, folksonomy, shadows.com , music , Del.icio.us , austin