One of the biggest downsides of using Blogger is that there is no built-in method to organize posts by topic. Just about every other blogging platform (e.g., WordPress, MoveableType) supports this feature, and most other bloggers use categories prolifically (e.g., Pharyngula, Respectful Insolence, Semantic Compositions). Since I write on such a diverse array of topics, I imagine that readers would prefer to read posts on whatever single topic (e.g., cooking, Linux, politics, science) interests them, rather than having to wade through all my posts in chronological order.
So, I'm now hunting for a mechanism to organize my posts. As part of a giant list of Blogger hacks, Freshblog has a two post series that discusses three different methods for adding del.icio.us or technorati tags to posts. Rahul Gupta also has a walkthrough on tagging, complete with links to other blogs that have done the same. There's even FreshTags, a site that has code that allows users to navigate tagged posts via the sidebar (though the navigation interface isn't quite as intuitive as many category implementations are).
There are also multiple methods to create categories: netcf2 has a script that uses Blogger Search to create categories, and there's also an independent service, lablr, that is designed to integrate with Blogger templates to add categories. Sambot compares tags and categories, and argues that tags are better than categories; in doing so Sambot summarizes the benefits of each technique.
In the coming days I'll likely be exploring various options for organizing my posts. If anyone has suggestions on how to best implement tags or categories here on Blogger, or has preferences for tags or categories they'd like to see here, I'm all ears!
[Update: I've decided to tag my posts with del.icio.us; I've written more about this here and here.]
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