In response to my post How To Use Tags describing Karl Voit’s perspective on the use of tags, Christian Tietze pointed me to a post by Sascha Fast on The Difference Between Good and Bad Tags. Fast makes a good point. The TL;DR is that you should use object tags instead of topic tags.
Fast illustrates the difference with the “diet” tag. If you think of it as a topic, you get all sorts of things thrown into the bin. If it’s in any way related or might be related to a diet, the diet tag will apply. The problem is that it’s not very useful. The category is way too broad and when you search on your “diet” tag you get too many entries, most of which are not what you’re looking for.
If, on the other hand, you treat your tags as naming an object, anything thing with that tag is in some way a diet. So “The Scarsdale Diet” would get that tag because it’s an actual diet but “high glycemic foods” would not because although it’s concerned with dietary matters it doesn’t actually describe a diet.
Take a look at Fast’s post for more detail on the distinction. Tagging can be a big help in searching for items but it’s important to assign them intelligently. Voit and Fast’s posts can help you devise an effective tagging strategy.