Tag clouds

[BLZ]

Let me start by saying that I don't much like tag clouds. I find them quite horrendous actually.

I was looking around on this site, and there was this perfectly awful looking ball of utter chaos. I'm thinking "WTF IS that?"

It turned out to be a 3D tag cloud. It spins around, and the tag your mouse is over pops out of the cloud and gets all highlighty and stuff.
Of course you can't tell what the hell you're mousing over because it's such a friggin' mess, so it has no navigation value. Great gimmick value...for about 3 seconds.

[mizwizzy]

@ perfectly awful looking ball of utter chaos !!

That's hilarious! I actually really liked that 3D Flash tag cloud thingy! I used to use it myself but got rid of it - most people think they are quite cool really but yeah that coolness doesn't really last that long! I think for me I got fed up with it and prefer the standard tag clouds - as you said, they can be very over crowded and it's frustrating when people don't limit them to show a sensible amount of tags that you can actually read - plus the speed factor can be off putting - so yes, I share you're frustration with that ball of nuisance!

[BLZ]

Don't get me wrong, I dislike clouds, but I'll use them. They are a very interesting alternative navigation, just don't like the whole wonky sizes randomness stuff. Offends my sensibilities. Mind you, rounded corners can make me hyperventilate too if I'm not careful.

I might have some issues. So what?



'One day, a rain is gonna come and wash all this garbage off the streets'...

[AlexDawson]

I think tag clouds can be implemented tastefully, I love the popular tags box on http://www.techi.com/, it's so well produced and organized

[r937]

I think tag clouds can be implemented tastefully, I love the popular tags box on http://www.techi.com/, it's so well produced and organized

you're right, that tag cloud is quite elegant

too bad the entire site is so overloaded with code (or whatever), it takes almost 45 seconds to load -- no way i'd ever visit on a regular basis

[BLZ]

That was very nice. Very well suited to the contents to boot. Well done techi dudes.

Off Topic:

On a totally different note, did you see that utubification they linked to of the crazy fountain? That is %$#@ing amazing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HeUi...layer_embedded