Folksonomy is a classification system in which end users apply public tags to online items, typically to make those items easier for themselves or others to find later. Over time, this can give rise to a classification system based on those tags and how often they are applied or searched for, in contrast to a taxonomic classification designed by the owners of the content and specified when it is published.Folksonomy was originally "the result of personal free tagging of information [...] for one's own retrieval", but online sharing and interaction expanded it into more collaborative forms. Social tagging is the application of tags in an open online environment where the tags of other users are available to others. Collaborative tagging, also known as group tagging, is a form of tagging that is performed by a group of users. This type of folksonomy is commonly used in cooperative and collaborative projects, including research, content repositories, and social bookmarking.