I tend to agree with Omar Koudsi’s thoughts on whether we will have a taxonomy or not. I think that content systems will begin to rely on folksonomy and search engines to self-organize. I see this on the wiki I use every day. I rely on type ahead search and on tags to get to what I want. It’s so much easier than the browse method.
That said, web sites still need to have some structure because people still want to see and do from the home page. Labels need to be correctly defined. Information architecture or the navigation of the site needs to be determined. This is especially important in the first couple levels of navigation on the site. If you have opinions, go to his post and comments.
Update: Alan Weintraub has a different take on taxonomy:
A Taxonomy can address two aspects of finding information;
- Using content/ asset types and metadata to find information with the highest accuracy. The goal is always to find that one document or piece of information that will answer the question or help make a better informed decision
- Visually navigating to the set of content that contains the information that you are looking for. While visual navigation may not be as useful with some of the new social media functionality (Wikis, Blogs, and Microblogs), it is still a critiacl aspect for casual users whlo want to find information stored in formal structures, such folders or other containers.
Read the whole thing.
