Zigtag Plugin – Introduction

Zigtag has an extensive sidebar add-on for Firefox that is always ready for you to quickly save the pages you find interesting.

The Zigtag sidebar has four different tabs – “Tag page,” “Explore,” “Share” and “Links.”

The “Tag page” tab is the default tab, and allows you to add tags to a page and quickly see the tags that have been applied to a page.

Entering a Tag

To add a tag, put the cursor in the “Enter tag here” box, and start typing. Hit enter to apply the tag to the page. The new tag will show up just below that box.

When you enter a tag, Zigtag will try to match a defined tag to what you have entered in the type-ahead. For example, typing “appl” will generate “Apple,” “Applause,” and “AppleTalk,” which both start with “appl.” Arrowing-down or mousing-over these tags will bring up a longer tag definition so you can see which defined tag you want to use, for example “Apple (the fruit).” Select a tag by clicking it with the mouse, or by hitting “Enter.” The tag will show up below the “Enter tag” box (see above image).

If you mouse-over a tag that has been applied, a definition will pop-up to the right, just like when you searched for it in the type-ahead.

Note: You can enter any tag you want and it will be applied, it just won’t have a Zigtag definition associated with it. Tags with a definition will show up in bold, whereas tags without will show up in plain text, and mousing over them will show “no definition.”

Other “Tag page” Features

Zigtag allows you to mark a page as a favourite, or as a page you’d rather not see again, by choosing the “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” icon on the sidebar. Marking a page as “thumbs up” will alert other users that this is a good page, and it will also float to the top of your results when searching for a particular tag. Choosing “thumbs down” will indicate to other users that it is not a good page, and will push it down in your results. You do not have to tag a page to add a rating – you’d probably not want to tag a page if you think it’s a poor quality page.

Located below the “thumbs” rating system is a group of suggested tags that you can apply quickly to a page. These suggested tags are obtained from a variety of sources, and clicking on them will apply them to your current page. I’ll talk about suggested tags extensively in a future post.

Finally, at the bottom of the page is a news feed panel. It will notify you when:

* Someone confirms or requests your friendship.
* One of your friends tags a page.
* One of your friends creates a group.
* A page is added to a group you belong to.

This news feed is a great way to see new pages that your friends have found interesting – so keep the sidebar open while you surf the web to see what is going on in your Zigtag community!