28

was blacklisted as of 2013-12-31 and no questions are left with that tag. Similar activity can be done with advanced searches like this, though I will not track progress in this list due to the blacklist.


Currently there are 240 google-related tags with the word 'google' in them.

There are additional tags which are hidden, like or which seem to relate to google but don't pop up on my (admittedly basic) search.

Issue

This is the tag wiki entry for :

Please do not use this tag.

is a very low quality tag, having very little useful meaning; please be more specific, using tags like:

Yet there are 13k questions tagged with it. There was a discussion in April to kill it with fire but it just kind of lingered there instead. And since that was posted, 2,818 new questions have been tagged with the google tag.

Several of the tags are one of a tag-pair which indicates one of our other tags. For instance, there are 1,157 questions tagged with both google and maps. While I'm sure some are not actually about , the vast majority seem to be.

Classifying the Madness

So I took the list of 240 tags with google in them, and split them up in to pairs like google and maps. There were 155 unique google + x combinations. I searched through the most popular 50 of them. Of those 50, 34 had more than 0 questions tagged with both those terms at the same time. The results are updated in the answer (the 'to-do' list).

Proposed Action

In the past, all tags tagged [google] and [earth] were retagged to [google-earth], but it looks like that was done for hand. This is a lot of work for the 3,696 questions above that would have to be sifted through.

I will go through and pick off all the tags with less than 50 questions tagged, but the following tags, if possible, could be given a mass renaming:

In the long term, rather than having a tag wiki that says, "Don't use this tag!" while still get hundreds of questions a month, we should look in to getting all 13k of those tags reclassified and blacklisting . This is the low-hanging fruit.

Additional Support

A lot of these google- tags should be synonyms. I can't figure out which ones have synonyms to which, and it is a lot of work to go through each. I will start on it, but would really appreciate any help that could be provided. Here is a list of the 240 google-related tags I found, just sorting by name will find several easy retag requests for duplicate tags. These are from the API.

Tag                      |Count|Has synonyms
google-app-engine        |22388|yes
google-maps              |22326|yes
google-chrome            |19736|yes
google                   |13554|no
google-maps-api-3        |10808|yes
google-chrome-extension  | 6983|no
google-analytics         | 4989|no
google-apps-script       | 4933|no
google-api               | 3451|yes
google-play              | 2626|yes
google-drive-sdk         | 2450|no
google-visualization     | 2269|yes
google-spreadsheet       | 1971|no
google-maps-markers      | 1798|no
google-plus              | 1753|yes
google-calendar          | 1491|yes
google-maps-android-api-2| 1258|no
google-chrome-devtools   | 1213|no
google-drive             | 1194|no
google-docs              | 1063|no
google-places-api        |  938|no
google-fusion-tables     |  915|yes
google-apps              |  858|no
google-analytics-api     |  806|no
google-oauth             |  735|no
google-maps-api-2        |  710|no
google-docs-api          |  688|no
google-bigquery          |  668|no
google-play-services     |  649|no
google-earth             |  582|no
google-cloud-storage     |  529|yes
google-cloud-endpoints   |  505|no
google-closure-compiler  |  477|no
googletest               |  451|yes
google-tv                |  444|no
google-translate         |  442|no
google-earth-plugin      |  431|no
google-spreadsheet-api   |  428|no
google-charts-api        |  423|no
google-chrome-app        |  422|no
google-search            |  406|no
google-api-java-client   |  397|no
google-closure           |  366|no
google-checkout          |  364|no
google-glass             |  349|no
google-maps-sdk-ios      |  336|no
google-geocoder          |  330|no
google-plus-one          |  302|no
google-code              |  294|no
google-sites             |  287|no
google-contacts          |  284|no
google-mirror-api        |  279|no
google-street-view       |  272|yes
google-cloud-sql         |  251|no
googlebot                |  249|no
google-talk              |  248|yes
google-webmaster-tools   |  248|no
google-search-api        |  241|no
google-cloud-messaging   |  239|no
google-closure-library   |  238|no
google-adwords-api       |  217|no
google-wallet            |  214|no
google-api-client        |  207|no
google-custom-search     |  204|no
google-openid            |  202|no
google-geocoding-api     |  198|no
google-webfonts          |  197|no
google-reader            |  197|yes
google-data-api          |  184|no
google-cast              |  181|no
google-play-games        |  165|yes
google-datastore         |  163|no
google-nativeclient      |  162|yes
google-admin-sdk         |  158|no
google-api-php-client    |  154|no
google-api-python-client |  151|no
google-drive-realtime-api|  148|no
google-gadget            |  146|no
google-authentication    |  140|no
google-compute-engine    |  139|no
google-account           |  135|yes
google-places            |  131|no
google-form              |  128|no
google-cse               |  125|no
google-api-dotnet-client |  123|no
google-static-maps       |  122|no
google-dfp               |  121|no
google-adwords           |  120|no
googlemock               |  117|no
google-font-api          |  114|no
google-chrome-frame      |  110|no
google-apps-marketplace  |   95|no
google-wave              |   93|no
google-gears             |   92|no
google-polyline          |   90|no
google-direction         |   86|no
google-eclipse-plugin    |   86|no
google-image-search      |   84|no
google-maps-mobile       |   83|no
google-tag-manager       |   83|no
google-crawlers          |   82|no
google-voice             |   80|no
google-provisioning-api  |   78|no
google-feed-api          |   76|no
google-cloud-print       |   74|no
google-groups            |   70|no
google-finance           |   69|no
google-search-appliance  |   67|no
google-chrome-os         |   67|yes
google-cdn               |   67|no
google-gdk               |   67|no
google-books             |   63|no
google-plugin-eclipse    |   62|no
google-tasks-api         |   61|no
google-website-optimizer |   60|no
igoogle                  |   58|no
google-login             |   58|no
google-weather-api       |   57|no
google-caja              |   56|no
google-swiffy            |   55|no
google-latitude          |   52|no
google-code-jam          |   50|no
google-geochart          |   49|no
google-cloud-datastore   |   46|no
google-now               |   45|no
google-refine            |   45|no
google-api-ruby-client   |   44|no
google-groups-api        |   43|no
google-pagespeed         |   43|no
google-shopping-api      |   43|no
google-closure-templates |   42|no
google-code-prettify     |   42|no
google-schemas           |   41|no
google-index             |   41|no
googlevis                |   40|no
google-maps-styled       |   38|no
google-prediction        |   37|no
google-api-console       |   35|no
google-storage           |   34|no
google-buzz              |   33|no
google-ajax-api          |   33|no
google-shared-contacts   |   33|no
google-news              |   32|no
google-url-shortener     |   32|no
google-ranking           |   31|no
google-finance-api       |   31|no
google-api-js-client     |   31|no
google-api-objc-client   |   31|no
google-sitemap           |   29|no
google-reflections       |   29|no
google-chartwrapper      |   29|no
google-text-to-speech    |   28|no
google-perftools         |   28|no
google-authenticator     |   28|no
google-apps-for-education|   26|no
google-reseller-api      |   25|no
google-profiles-api      |   25|no
googleio                 |   24|no
google-tasks             |   23|no
google-instant           |   23|no
google-local-search      |   22|no
google-code-hosting      |   21|no
google-ad-manager        |   20|no
google-product-search    |   20|no
google-goggles           |   20|no
google-scholar           |   19|no
google-translator-toolkit|   19|no
google-toolbox-for-mac   |   19|no
google-chrome-storage    |   19|no
google-directory-api     |   18|no
google-data              |   18|no
google-mini              |   17|no
google-api-nodejs-client |   17|no
google-experiments       |   17|no
google-suggest           |   16|no
google-alerts            |   16|no
google-doodle            |   15|no
google-friend-connect    |   15|no
rgooglemaps              |   15|no
google-rich-snippets     |   15|no
google-shopping          |   14|no
google-email-settings-api|   14|no
google-admin-settings-api|   13|no
google-http-client       |   13|no
google-client            |   13|no
google-maps-engine       |   13|no
google-base              |   13|no
google-ajax-libraries    |   13|no
google-widget            |   12|no
google-style-guide       |   12|no
google-document-viewer   |   12|no
google-email-migration   |   12|no
google-reporting-api     |   11|no
google-datatable         |   11|no
google-gauges            |   10|no
google.load              |   10|no
google-desktop           |   10|no
google-nexus             |   10|no
google-loader            |   10|no
google-http-java-client  |   10|no
google-groups-settings   |    9|no
xgoogle                  |    9|no
google-sso               |    9|no
google-closure-libraries |    8|no
google-toolbar           |    8|no
google-app-engine-patch  |    8|no
google-ajax              |    8|no
google-project-hosting   |    7|no
google-email-audit-api   |    7|no
google-maps-android-api-1|    7|no
google-oauth-java-client |    7|no
google-license-manager   |    6|no
google-instant-previews  |    6|no
pygooglechart            |    6|no
googlecl                 |    6|no
google-ctemplate         |    6|no
google-appliance         |    6|no
google-moderator         |    5|no
google-language-api      |    5|no
google-data-protocol     |    5|no
google-ajax-search-api   |    5|no
google-breakpad          |    4|no
google-closure-stylesheet|    4|no
google-groups-migration  |    3|no
google-admin-audit-api   |    3|no
google-desktop-search    |    3|no
google-body-browser      |    2|no
google-local-business    |    2|no
google-health            |    2|no
google-notebook          |    2|no
google-playground        |    2|no
google-api-cpp-client    |    2|no
spring-social-google     |    2|no
google-spanner           |    2|no
google-webdriver         |    1|no
google-go-idea-plugin    |    1|no
google-maps-engine-lite  |    1|no
google-maps-engine-pro   |    1|no
google-keep              |    1|no
google-cloud-console     |    1|no

As we go through the tag combos, we will find a lot of tagging issues, synonyms, etc. which are being tracked in the answers below. Feel free to go from the above data list, or to work on the already-discovered issues in the answer. Every little bit helps!

A list of all google tag pairs based on the above tags is available in the answers with links, and the status (how many questions with that pair exist).

10
  • 11
    Wow, great job collecting stats and evidence, as well as providing easy-to-use search links! Dec 10, 2013 at 9:02
  • 6
    It is a shame that a tag can not be blacklisted for NEW quesions while still allowing it on old questions, so at least stopping the problem getting worce. Dec 10, 2013 at 10:18
  • 1
    Nice post, gives me a huge list of questions to suggest edits from!
    – Flyk
    Dec 10, 2013 at 11:01
  • @MartijnPieters, if you want people to take action, the first key is to make it easy for them. That's how communities work, right? (I really dove down the rabbit hole while searching for google + visualization, found all this, and an hour later this came out -- I really wanted to unsee the chaos...)
    – jmac
    Dec 10, 2013 at 11:23
  • 2
    @jmac: absolutely true, but you'd be amazed how many people don't go this extra mile. Kudos! Dec 10, 2013 at 11:24
  • 1
    I believe I should update my cleanup the services tag question. Nice work. Dec 10, 2013 at 11:31
  • 1
    @IanRingrose Actually I believe that's exactly what blacklisting does (according to some mod in some comment somewhere, just don't ask me to find it), but it apparently confuses people, maybe this should be improved rather than consistently having to deal with these types of problems. Dec 11, 2013 at 21:53
  • 1
    Sooo. There's a problem. Someone deleted google. It's gone. Kaput. How do I know? Someone recreated it a few hours ago. While I can try and keep it dead, having it disappeared on us is going to make it near impossible to fix the broken tag combinations...
    – Charles
    Jan 1, 2014 at 8:45
  • @Charles, that is a huge issue. I'll try to get a handle on how this happened. Thanks for the heads up!
    – jmac
    Jan 6, 2014 at 0:53
  • @jmac Found it. Thankfully it's at least blacklisted. But still. :/
    – Charles
    Jan 6, 2014 at 2:51

1 Answer 1

1

To-Do

Retag

These tag combos exist and need to be changed to the appropriate google- tag. For instance, if a + question is about , then the question should be retagged as with the other two tags removed.

Naturally, if there are quality or other issues that can be fixed at the same time, please do that too

Keep Clean

These questions currently have no questions with this tag combo, but should be kept clean anyway. If someone can come up with a way to check to see if any of them pop back up, that'd be awesome.

Other Issues

Synonyms to be looked in to

These tags seem to be related when I was looking through manually editing tags. Each should be looked at in more depth. If you want to tackle one, please make a separate meta question and link it here.

Potential Meta Tags

These tags are potentially meta tags and should be looked in to separately. If you want to tackle one, please link the separate meta post here.

5
  • gae-datastore is the name of what would otherwise be called google-app-engine-datastore. There are a few other gae-* tags that you might want to add to the "to be looked into" list.
    – Charles
    Dec 11, 2013 at 6:12
  • I'm a total idiot when it comes to what the tags actually mean (other than google-visualization), any chance you could edit the list with the non-google- tags that need to be added? There are a bunch of android ones I'd assume, as well as some chrome ones possibly, and gae as you say, as well as gwk... I am more than happy to take a shot at adding them, but expertise makes it a lot easier.
    – jmac
    Dec 11, 2013 at 6:14
  • We should also address synonym issues, for example: gae -> [google-app-engine] would be a good addition; glass -> [google-glass] instead of pointing to [aero-glass] .. or remove the "glass' synonym entirely. Feb 10, 2014 at 23:54
  • @Erst, as stated at the top of this, these were all retagged auto-magically and so the project is essentially dead as a result. If you want to focus on retagging, creating separate meta questions with the specific tag synonyms you want to request tends to have a pretty good success rate!
    – jmac
    Feb 11, 2014 at 14:32
  • There is app-engine-ndb as well, which should probably be renamed to google-app-engine-ndb. Apr 19, 2014 at 18:24

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