With the announcement of the built-in tag feature in the upcoming release of WordPress 2.3, I’ve been waiting for WordPress.com to get tags as we are the beta testers of the WordPress World. Well, today they arrived.

At the bottom of your Write Post panel’s editing box, you will see a new form for Tags. The instructions say to list the tag words in the box, separated by commas. This allows you to include keyword tags and phrases such as wordpress tips, wordpress, i like wordpress, etc.

The process, tips, and answers to questions regarding these new tags are found in the WordPress.com FAQ - The Difference Between Tags and Categories, which basically sums up these points:

• Your categories are fine. Think of tags as micro-categories.
• Nothing has gone away - only been added to your WordPress.com blogs.
• Tags are optional. Put nothing in the box, get no tags on the post.
• The tags will link to your site link to WordPress.com blogs with the same “tag” and generate a category-style page view of posts with that “tag” on your blog.
• Tags are not hierarchical like categories. You can’t have a “parent” tag.

Here are some things you might not want to hear:

• According to a few who have first had the tags appear on their blog’s WordPress Theme on WordPress.com, the tags link to WordPress.com, not your blog. If you don’t want tags to send visitors off your blog, like categories in the post meta data section do, then let your voice be heard and tell them.
• There is no global tag list. To change a tag, you have to edit the post(s) with that tag.
• There are no “easy” methods of coming up with tag words. No recommendations or tag list to choose from. You make them up as you go.
• The built-in spell check feature for Firefox, and possibly Internet Explorer, do not spell check the tags in the box. Make sure you spell them right the first time!
• WordPress.com users have no control over where the tags appear on their blog, though those with the CSS Extra option have some control over how their tags look.
• While tag links will keep visitors on your blog, post categories in the meta data section will continue to link to ALL WordPress.com content using those same categories, inviting reader to leave your blog, something I’ve long opposed. The categories list in your sidebar will link to posts within that category on your blog.

I’ve already included tags on several posts to test them, but I cannot see them in this WordPress Theme. I’m still looking for them to appear, but I presume they will be in the post meta data area. Each WordPress Theme on WordPress.com must be modified to include the new tag features, so it may take a while to get around to the Sandbox Theme or your particular Theme.

For a long time, I’ve been using a manual browser bookmarklet with my site search tags, and I’m not going to go through and remove them. If I like how these look and work, I’ll use these new tags. If not, I’m happy with my manual method.

For those using my Tagging Bookmarklet for WordPress and WordPress.com Users, I will be updating that with tips on how to change the site search link to the new tag link, once I get a handle on how the new tags work.

Tags for Full Versions of WordPress

The new tag feature for full version WordPress users is in the upcoming release of WordPress 2.3, due this weekend. A couple of good tutorials on how to add WordPress 2.3 tags with the new tag sample tags to your WordPress Theme include How To Add WordPress 2.3 Tags To Your Current Theme by Rich Gilchrest and WPDesigner - WordPress 2.3 Beta Review and Checklist.

If you are currently using a tagging WordPress Plugin, your tags may not be “lost”. There are tag importer utilities in the new version of WordPress that covers Simple Tags, Jerome’s Keywords, Ultimate Tag Warrior, and Bunny’s Technorati Tags. I’m still waiting for news on tips and techniques for not using the new native tag feature, replacing it with one of the better tag WordPress Plugins, since the built-in version is very limited and there are better tagging Plugins available.

There are new WordPress Plugins to add functionality and features to the new tag feature. Advanced Tag Entry WordPress Plugin and Click Tags WordPress Plugin improve the functions of the tags, and the WordPress 2.3 Related Posts Plugin uses the tags to create a list of related posts.

The best part of finally seeing tagging on WordPress.com is that the 1 million plus users will be putting the tagging system through the ringer, testing it from all angles and trying to break it on their blogs. Even though it is just a few days before WordPress 2.3 is released, hopefully the feedback will help WordPress developers make sure that the new tag system will work better for everyone.

Things to Know About Tags and Categories

I’ve written a lot about the differences and similarities of tags and categories. I’ve listed some references below to help you understand them better.

Categories are your blog’s table of contents. Don’t remove them, thinking tags are a better option. They aren’t. Your posts must be categorized. Remove them and they will be categorized as “uncategorized”, something you do not want, trust me.

Tags are like your blog’s index. They are keywords that represent the micro-categorization of your blog’s content. To work effectively, they need to be words that people search for, called search terms.

Categories are automatically marked as tags in WordPress. Theoretically, your blog doesn’t need tags. But many like the notion of breaking down the words that describe their content beyond categories, and tags offer that ability.

Here is more information on tags and categories:

• Tags and Tagging in WordPress
• Categories versus Tags - What’s the Difference and Which One?
• Categories versus Tags: Defining the Limitations
• The Problems With Tags and Tagging
• What Do You Blog About? Check Your Tags
• Tidying Up Tags - A Technical Review
• Tags Are Not Categories - Got It?
• Putting Some Thought Into Blog Categories and Tags
• Tagging With Emotions Not Common Sense
• Keywords Versus Tags
• Link Referrals - Linking to Site Search Tags
• One Year Anniversary Review: Tags, Tagging, and Categories
• Are You Abusing and Misusing Tags?
• Blog Post Category Trauma: How To Help Bloggers With Useless Categories
• Blog Post Category Trauma: Suggestions for Useless Categories
• Blog Post Category Trauma: Fixing Those Useless Categories
• Blog Post Category Trauma: Changing Your Categories in WordPress

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