Why We Tag Motivations for Annotation in Mobile and Online Media Morgan G. Ames Dept. of Communication Stanford University Mor Naaman Yahoo! Research Berkeley

Morgan Ames and Mor Naaman Why We Tag 2 motivations Desktop tagging software hasn’t taken off, yet tagging on Flickr (and ZoneTag and elsewhere online) has – why? How are people generally using (or wanting to use) tags, particularly on photographs? How can people be encouraged to tag even more?

Morgan Ames and Mor Naaman Why We Tag 3 the platform: ZoneTag + Flickr

Morgan Ames and Mor Naaman Why We Tag 4 our study 13 ZoneTag users who tag (25-45, 9m, 4f) Open-ended, hour-long interviews Reflexive Photo-Elicitation (Van House 2006)

Morgan Ames and Mor Naaman Why We Tag 5 … but first, why do we photograph? Social or individual motivations Functional, “affective” (e.g. people pictures), artistic Self-expression and self-presentation More archival than short-term Participants echoed results of previous research (e.g. Kindberg et al., Van House et al.)

Morgan Ames and Mor Naaman Why We Tag 6 results Grounded theory: interview statements led development of dimensions Four types of motivations along two dimensions –Function (organization or communication) –Sociality (self, friends/family, general public) But … often multiple motivations, even for a single tag or photo

Morgan Ames and Mor Naaman Why We Tag 7 motivations for tagging friendspublic

Morgan Ames and Mor Naaman Why We Tag 8 organization for self {Torch Lake, Anna, Sarah} Mostly I use [tags] if I go back on Flickr, if I want to find all the pictures of one thing. If I tagged ahead of time I can go back and get all my pictures of [my children]. … Mostly it’s for my own organization at this point. Sometimes if I really like a picture and I send it to other people … I then think “well, maybe I should tag this” so I can find it again later. I’m obsessive-compulsive (laughs); I like order and structure.

Morgan Ames and Mor Naaman Why We Tag 9 {birthday, mica, freshman year} communication to a future self If I have the time, the neighborhood, or the event, I have enough information to look at my own collection and know where this came from. I don’t have the bandwidth to tag for the benefit of the Flickr system. … I want at least one hook of association in there that can help me reconstruct what I was thinking. I don’t have time to put all the hooks in but I can put one in.

Morgan Ames and Mor Naaman Why We Tag 10 {woburn, grandpa, grandma, birthday, rebel} organization for family and friends When my sister’s baby was born she got a new tag, and at one point my dad was clicking on the [child’s name] tag … [the tag provided a way to] sort by child.

Morgan Ames and Mor Naaman Why We Tag 11 {Singapore, Asia, food, muffin, coffee} organization for strangers I don't think friends and family are using my tags to search. It’s more the Flickr community that is using my tags. My parents got used to the idea of watching my photo-stream, and my wife also, and friends are now too. I took lots of pictures of cars in my neighborhood because I know that a lot of people out there would be interested. … I tag photos with what I think might be interesting to other people, stuff I think people will like. … It’s like being a good citizen within Flickr. In this case I wouldn’t mind if the public could see where [this band] was rehearsing because that’s somewhat of an advertisement of the band. If my pictures can help get a band’s name out there then sure. I tagged [this new restaurant] because it just opened and it was new and I wanted to tell people what it was.

Morgan Ames and Mor Naaman Why We Tag 12 reputation among strangers It would be a fun experiment to tag one picture with lots and lots of really generic tags and see how many clicks you get. Definitely when you tag your pictures people find them much more than if you don’t. Mostly friends view my photos, but as I grow my collection, I am getting more [public] views. I've noticed that if I take [and tag] pictures of cute female friends, views go up. … There’s a satisfaction that 50 people have viewed my photos. I know that tagging can connect my photos to activities, and get more interest. {nikonstunninggallery, popular, sunset, …}

Morgan Ames and Mor Naaman Why We Tag 13 photo pools and standardization {chi2006, montreal, chisv, Canada, Palais de Congres} If I’m out with friends … they might suggest tags. A couple of my friends will say “put my user ID in there” so they can find the picture.... Using my user ID on my Flickr photos pulls my photo into certain streams. I’ll want to look at all [my neighborhood’s] tags. … That’s definitely a reason I’m putting these tags in [hoping that others reuse that tag in her neighborhood]. I’m at an event and there’s a convergence on a specific tag, then I’ll tag because it’s for the good of the group. … It’s a nice way to build live streams and collections of photos. … [A classmate] suggested we tag everything specifically so we can find it, which is actually really useful.

Morgan Ames and Mor Naaman Why We Tag 14 {Michigan winter sucks} communicating with strangers [In Hawaii on vacation,] I wanted to use tags differently. In Maui we were at a Japanese restaurant, and I wanted to review the restaurant [with my tags]. … I left reviews of places – like at the airport, when my flight was delayed, I tagged “Aloha Air sucks.”

Morgan Ames and Mor Naaman Why We Tag 15 {late, story of my life, will work harder in the future, okaybye} communicating with friends It’s so other people can understand what’s in the photo, or more where I am … I can tell my mom [with the tag] “look, we went to [these places].” [I tag] so I don’t have to explain myself – so my friends don’t have to ask me a billion questions … I can give them the basic story. [Tags are] a description to provide context about what I'm taking a picture of so that my friends and family can see what I am up to.

Morgan Ames and Mor Naaman Why We Tag 16 in-the-moment “social signaling” It’s like digital [yawning] … One person pulls their [camera]phone out, and then everyone starts pulling out their camera. My use [of ZoneTag] went way up when my team started using it. … When I'm with other friends who don't have ZoneTag, there’s no point in using tags like that. The social dynamic isn’t as fun. … When there is a social dynamic, my photo taking goes way up. It’s a shared social experience. [At work] it’s a chain reaction. Someone takes out their camera, then others take out their camera thinking something important is happening.

Morgan Ames and Mor Naaman Why We Tag 17 participants’ motivations Primary and secondary motivations benefit realized later?

Morgan Ames and Mor Naaman Why We Tag 18 the effect of suggested tags I think it’s cool to tag stuff that might end up educating someone else. I see restaurants pop up … that someone else has put in. I was taking a picture of the water tower in Sunnyvale, and I thought about how my tags would show up for others. … Tag suggestions were huge for me; they really cut down on typing. I appreciate the fact that I can reuse the tags. It makes it worth my while. … I try to use as many suggested tags that apply. … I also use it for auto- completion – I type “s” to get San Francisco. I’m not good at typing on the phone. … I look at the tags, and if something comes up right away at the top and relevant I’ll select it. … When I’m busy I try to type [the first letter] and usually the phone gets it. BUT … “who’s this person in my phone!?” In general, more tagging on ZoneTag than on similar systems without suggested tags (e.g. Shozu)

Morgan Ames and Mor Naaman Why We Tag 19 “Implications for Design” Tagging is often social – motivations are multifaceted Make tags pervasive and multi-functional Allow tagging at time of capture AND later Relevant tag suggestions are good, BUT … –Irrelevant suggestions may confuse/alarm –Laziness may compromise quality –Bypass option should be clear

Morgan Ames and Mor Naaman Why We Tag 20 what next? What about those who don’t tag? Test on other tagging systems Build better filtering, tag suggestions Longer usage trends Effect of community on usage – especially reputation

Thanks! {Morgan G. Ames, Dept. of Communication, Stanford University} {Mor Naaman, Yahoo! Research Berkeley}

Morgan Ames and Mor Naaman Why We Tag 22

Morgan Ames and Mor Naaman Why We Tag 23 results Focus on organization & retrieval User are creators or synthesizers Altruism: “tagging for community” Motivation taxonomy No “synthesizers” Inspired by community X

Morgan Ames and Mor Naaman Why We Tag 24 why do we photograph?