Customizing a tag cloud

1. A computer implemented process for customizing a tag cloud, comprising:

identifying a source of tags;

assigning a score to each tag in said source based on characteristics of said tags;

identifying a new tag within said source, wherein the new tag is considered to be a new tag based on a tag emphasis policy;

grouping the new tag with a number of other tags within the source of tags;

increasing said score for said new tag based on the tag emphasis policy wherein the tag emphasis policy comprises a first block of time after new tag creation with a first fixed non-zero increase and a second block of time with a non-zero increase less than a value of the first fixed non-zero increase such that an increase applied said score for said new tag decreases incrementally over time a time each tag was created;

customizing a display of said tag cloud in a graphical user interface by emphasizing each tag according to its score, the emphasis of each tag being increased with an increase of each tag's respective score; and

increasing a score of a first one of the plurality of tags based on an update to the first one of the plurality of tags,

wherein the update of the first one of the plurality of tags comprises association of the first one of the plurality of tags with a new keyword, association of the first one of the plurality of tags with additional content, or a combination thereof,

wherein increased emphasis of new tags are staggered in time so they are not emphasized equally at the same time.

2. The computer implemented process of claim 1 , wherein increasing said score for said new tag comprises temporarily increasing said score for a fixed time period.

3. The computer implemented process of claim 1 , wherein increasing said score for said new tag comprises increasing said score until a user interacts with said new tag.

4. The computer implemented process of claim 1 , wherein a plurality of groups of tags are displayed in concentric circles, the concentric circles identifying which tags belong to which groups.

5. The computer implemented process of claim 1 , further comprising adjusting a number of user-adjustable settings defining whether new tags are or are not emphasized based on user input.

6. The computer implemented process of claim 1 , wherein the score increase for the new tag is at least as high as a median score from all of the tags in the tag cloud.

7. The computer implemented process of claim 1 , wherein the tag emphasis policy comprises a policy that defines the new tag as new based on a user's activity comprising a most recent time the user viewed the tag cloud.

8. The computer implemented process of claim 1 , comprising increasing the score for the new tag in response to a determination that the new tag has not been selected by the user within a predetermined time period.

9. A method for customizing a tag cloud, comprising:

increasing a score of each tag in a plurality of tags based on a tag emphasis policy, wherein the tag emphasis policy comprises

adding an increase to a score of a first tag designated as a new tag by an amount inversely related to a time since a creation of the first tag such that the increase in score decreases over time from the creation of the first tag, the increase to the score of each tag being based on both the time since creation of each tag respectively and a determination of whether a user has clicked on each tag respectively;

leaving scores of tags with a creation time that falls outside of a time period unaltered; and

emphasizing each tag in a user interface according to its score,

wherein increased emphasis of new tags is staggered in time so the new tags are not emphasized equally at the same time.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

increasing said score for the new tag during a time period measured from the creation of said new tag; and

adjusting said score when said time period of said new tag expires so that said score reverts to what said score would have been without increasing said score.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising adjusting a number of user-adjustable settings defining whether new tags are or are not emphasized based on user input.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the score increase for the new tag is at least as high as a median score from all of the tags in the tag cloud.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the tag emphasis policy comprises a policy that defines the new tag as new based on a user's activity comprising a most recent time the user viewed the tag cloud.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein:

the new tag is grouped with a number of other tags, and

the other tags receive a score increase equal to the new tag's increase within the tag cloud.

15. The method of claim 9 , further comprising increasing a score of the new tag in response to an update of the new tag, wherein the update of the new tag comprises association of the new tag with a new keyword, association of the new tag with additional content, or a combination thereof.