JonW - 9:54 am on Jan 22, 2008 (gmt 0)

Typical internet user may not "understand" a tag cloud, but they can certainly click the big lettered link.

With piqued interest, seems one Mister Jim Flanagan was once sited as the source of the tag cloud for http referral data. [wiki.dlma.com ], yet cannot find any further references.

I'd guess that Mr Flanagan, has had some training is the field of data visualization as this is very much within the disciple to use color, size, and shape to represent complex data more intuitively.

Tag clouds will probably not go away anytime soon, but the developer should consider whether the representation is the best way to present the information. Most people understand a pie chart without problem.