Tags: xri, technorati
Kevin Burton and a few other folks make a good point in talking about problems with the new Technorati tagging system. One thing that bugs me in particular is that it's basically a technorati-only solution that is a metadata standard based on a site-specific URL pattern. This seems brittle and more than a little hackish. I mean, great start, don't stop, but lets come up with a better solution.
How about replacing the link to technorati with a link to a +-namespaced XRI? So instead of <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/homeland+security" rel="tag">homeland security</a>, you'd do <a href="xri://+homeland.security" rel="tag">homeland security</a>.
Yes, XRI's don't resolve in web browsers yet, but I happen to know people are working on this. The XRI Editors group is just now getting the XRI 2.0 specs wrapped up... You could configure a plugin to resolve +-namespace XRIs into a tag-search at technorati... or google... or your local database of metadata... or all of the above in some convenient summary view... or ...
[Update 08/29/05: This blog is outdated and would,if posted today, be "totally bogus" according to Kevin Marks - see Rel Tag proposal which is implemented by Technorati - anybody can host a "tagspace" -- not just Technorati]
