Do you use the tag clouds on this blog?

If you look in the sidebar on the right, you'll see a Tag Cloud and a Category Cloud. They show the frequency of keywords used to describe different posts, and they are supposed to make it easier for people to find posts on a topic that interests them. If you click on one of the words in the cloud, you should see a list of relevant posts.

A recent discussion in the alt.usage.english newsgroup made me wonder if anyone ever uses these things. Some people seem to find them annoying.

Here are some excerpts from the discussion:

Most pointless invention of the 21st century

Tag clouds….

Is there anyone on earth whose experience has in any way been enriched by these

jumbled clusters of words in assorted sizes and orientations?…

Do they in fact *have* an intended purpose, or do they exist only to fill up

otherwise empty page or screen space?…

Do they follow any laws of organization whatsoever?…is it even possible to

speak of a tag cloud being "put together wrong"?…

The author of that goes on to say that the Wiki article says they were popularized by Flickr, which later dropped them and apologized to the web-community.

So, how useful do you find tag clouds?

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