This article talks about why metadata is often metacrap. He makes a lot of good points about the weaknesses of depending on humans to classify information. Some of the problems he talks about could be somewhat fixed by standards, but we all know what a big bag of worms that opens up. In the short term, I don’t have too outrageous expectations for metadata… I’d just like to be able to Google something like “meta:review solar powered flashlight” and get actual reviews of a product rather than useless crap and ads about where I can buy said item. Right now Amazon or sites like Tom’s Hardware are my best bets for reviews. (Why the hell does InfoWorld never show up in search results?)
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