Dylan Greene dot com

May contain nuts.

Expressing emotions on the web

March 4, 2003 8:51 AM

I really dislike how emotionless blogging can be. For example, when I write something, you (the reader) have no idea if I'm happy, confused, excited, or being sarcastic.

More importantly, search engines and aggregators don't know anything about the writer's emotions.

I propose adding Emotion XML tags to blogs, news stories, photos, and RSS so that search engines and news aggregators can use that information to further filter what users want to see, and help users understand what they are seeing:

Show blog entires where the writer is feeling X about subject Y.

For example:

Show blog entries where the writer is nervous about Google buying Pyra Labs.

Show blog entries where the writer is disapointed in Turkey's decision.

Show blog entries where the writer is excited about usability.

Search for photos of Dave Winer where the subject is happy.

Search for news stories about the Middle East that are reassuring.

Search for blog writters that write mostly happy entires.

Once the emotion tags are there, they can be displayed in several different ways. For me, I'd might show a small 64x64 photograph of myself making a face of that emotion. Some people might want to use a generic smiley face library like we see in messenger software. Others might prefer the simple ALT text of "happy" "sad" etc... Emotions would also be recorded in RSS to make searching and indexing easy.

So what do you think? Who wants to help me bring emotions to the web?

Comments

they have this in livejournals.com already - users can choose an emotion to go with their blog. i guess it makes the post a bit more personal and richer. i started to think about doing it myself but one problem is that, with comments, your attitude about a post can change as you annotate it. i try to make my emotion come out in the words. spending the time to find just the right emotion was frustrating because it would always be like "well that's not quite right" and i'd end up choosing like 4 emotions. it's hard to label a post with a single emotion. it's almost like every sentence needs to be marked.

On LiveJournals, how many emotions can you choose from? Would it be easier if there were only like 5 to select from?

i want new msn emotions how do i get them

i want more yahoo messenger emotions, and i know quite a few other people who would like them. how do i get them?

Here's a ton of new MSN emotions:

http://ilovemessenger.msn.com/Default.aspx

im lookin 4 sum rude msn emotions how do i gteem??

There's thousands of MSN emotions here so no doubt there's some rude ones for you nathan. But please be nice to your buddies for me, ok?

I was talking about http://www.mess.be, the site that Dylan mentioned :-p

I host alot of msn emotions on my site, free for everyone.

( http://www.msn-emotions.org )

katrina, you can also use msn emotions for yahoo! messenger but you have to replace the old ones. You cant add new emotions like you can with msn, hopefully in newer versions you will be able to!

I think emotions are good to express feelings on forums/blogs/chat but i dont think they should be used as a filter, using emotions could be a little complicated imho.

There are hundreds on http://www.msnemotions.info

Also you can use the software from http://www.freesmileys.net on msn to have animated emotions with other people with the software...

The best site that I use for getting emoticons and stuff for emotions is http://www.sherv.net and sometimes mess.be but they have a lot of low quality stuff on mess.be

WARNING - All downloads on http://www.sherv.net contains spyware and adware. Use at your own risk!

Look who's talking about low quality. Spyware scumware: AVOID SHERF!

this websites rubbish

watch out because everything that you download gives you viruses

is there any emotions that r moving and rude lol

?????

how long do u have to wait man lol :@

sum1 want to answr me man

dis is a crap site i cunt findn e fink i was lookin 4 :@:@!!!!

I want moving emotions there all d go now! not shitty 1s that dnt move and i cnt even find any been on loads of sites n there all shit! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you suck

iz there any rude xxx animated emotion sites???

www.planetsmilies.com or it mite b www.planetsmileys.com not sure but all them sites i sed r animated

www.msnmonkey.co.uk , www.allemotions.com  www.emotions4u.com

hope dere k for u's anli good ones i na

www.planetmsn.co.uk is a good site for animated emoticons.

   Unfortunate i didn't come across this blog-thread a long time ago . . . On the surface the idea of adding searchable emoticons or 'emotional' meta-tags to web sources such as blogs, news articles and so forth sounds awesome. The problem is that emotionality is very subjective and can lead to rather biased interpretations. The original author placing an emotional emphasis or adding emotional colour to their writing beyond the words themselves is simply another mode of expression. We already add photos and videos so what’s wrong with emotion indicators? Nothing. Emoticons are used and loved by millions and that’s cool.

   The problem could arise when people use an emot-enabled search engine. Say I only want to find stories with a happy spin -- anything wrong with that? Doesn’t seem like it. Yet this capability will make it much easier to filter out what we do not want to hear or see -- a balanced and honest picture of things. Do not misread me here. I think it’s a great idea. It is just that even with the wide availability of information on the internet, such a vast knowledge-base available at our fingertips, large numbers of people are slow to give up their cherished, limited, prejudiced concepts and beliefs. Beliefs and views based on a balanced and honest investigation into the information available to us from ALL sources will always lead to greater light and truth. Let’s hope people will continue to wake up from their sleep and in future will use emotional meta-tags in an intelligent manner.

   But maybe that is asking too much given some of the responses above.

PS . . .   if you read the above contribution carefully you might notice plenty of emotional content just from the carefully chosen words themselves. Food for thought isn't it?  And the heart too, if one actually listens.

Arrogant?  Not at all.  Just telling it like it is as seen from one viewpoint while taking responsibility to share one's best at any given moment.

ana bedey smaily

im laila   oh boobs its lovely see yes

hello

im laila

Your Comments
Name:
Email address (optional):
Home page, blog, or journal (optional):
Comments:

Related Posts

Category: Ideas
Category: RSS