Depending on the context (print or web), how we label things could be as much of a traditional ID task as it is an IA task. However, once you move over to full-blown web sites (particularly in the e-commerce world), this is really the strong suit of the information architect.

Consider my recent experience. As mentioned yesterday, my old boom box is not doing so well pulling in my regular radio station in my new inside office. So I'm now on the lookout for a radio that can. After doing sneakernet to both Radio Shack and Best Buy today, I decided to see what I could find on the Internet. After being less than successful at Sharper Image and Brookstone, I decided to surf buy.com.

Since the search "FM radio digital tuner" returned results in buy.com's categories of computers, software, and books (beside electronics), I decided to browse instead, and clicked on electronics in their pseudo-tab interface. I figured that the ideal candidate for a work radio would be a clock radio ... I didn't need an expensive boombox that would walk away from my office, nor did I need a Walkman-like portable. I wanted something with a decent digital tuner and amp that could pick up the desired station. Let me cut to the chase. Portable Audio was not my first choice, Home Audio was. Good thing I'm a patient surfer, for of course, clock radios are considered to be portable by the folks at buy.com. (Yes Virginia, I know they are portable ... but the only time my clock radio moves is when I pack up my entire apartment!). It seems to me that redundancy would be an asset here ... why not list clock radios under both home and portable audio? Alas, the real bummer is that even after I found the right category, I didn't find a suitable radio.

All of this is why Lou Rosenfeld and Peter Morville should do amazingly well with the 2nd edition of the Polar Bear book, . I've got my copy, and once I can devote some time to it, will share more soon. In the meantime, if you have more free time than me and think that Polar Bear IA is for you, then by all means, and then use Peter's amazing syllabus as a tool for working thru the volume.

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