Tags are handy labels that make finding and sharing on the Internet easier, on the Big Picture site they help in search and also organise our galleries.

A photo can have more than one tag, and it’s a good idea to have as many as are relevant to your photo. So if you’ve taken a picture of a tree, with a man in front of it who is smiling, you could add “tree, man, smiling” as tags.

In order to help the thousands of photos that have been added to The Big Picture be found and seen by as many people as possible, we’re attempting to make sure the photos are tagged as well as they can. Visitors to the site can add tags to the photos to help.

To make sure that the tags are relevant (and to guard against typos!) the site waits until two people have added the same tag.

Tags on Flickr

Flickr uses tags to help search the photos people add. That way, if someone searches for any of those words on Flickr they will find your photo. On Flickr you can add tags to other people’s photos too – if they allow it.

If you’re interested in the types of tags people use on their photos, try looking at this article written by a Flickr user.