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what is the difference between tags and keywords?

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  • Last reply by cor-el

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Of course I "get" that "somehow" keywords and tags help when I'm entering text in the url text box at the top of Firefox.

But I can't seem to find anything that tells me EXACTLY how keywords are used versus EXACTLY how tags are used.

I guess I could type every tag / keyword in BOTH places, but "that don't sound right".

Please publish an article on "tags versus keywords", or improve the index to some existing article that covers both clearly.

Thanks!

Of course I "get" that "somehow" keywords and tags help when I'm entering text in the url text box at the top of Firefox. But I can't seem to find anything that tells me EXACTLY how keywords are used versus EXACTLY how tags are used. I guess I could type every tag / keyword in BOTH places, but "that don't sound right". Please publish an article on "tags versus keywords", or improve the index to some existing article that covers both clearly. Thanks!

All Replies (3)

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Theoretically, they are the same thing. The incredibly simplified answer to the question is: keywords are used to find things via search engines; tags are used to find things within your own blog.

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Tags are a way of categorizing bookmarks in Firefox. IMO, it was created to allow users to "tag" a bookmark to help find it, rather than saving the same bookmark into separate folders when the bookmark might fit multiple resource categories. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/categorizing-bookmarks-make-them-easy-to-find#w_using-tags

Keywords can be used to search specific websites directly from the Firefox Location bar. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-search-from-address-bar

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You can assign a keyword to a bookmark or search engine and invoke this item easily via the location/address bar by typing this keyword and possible extra parameters, so a keyword identifies one particular item. Tags are used to organize bookmarks into groups with the name of the tag, so a specific tag points to all bookmark items that have this tag.


Note that Firefox 40 will remove the Keyword column in the Bookmarks Manager (Library). Keywords will be bound to a specific URL and not to a specific bookmark.

Some technical details: