With automated tagging, Web links can surprise

Internet publishers are increasingly relying on automated systems to tag phrases of interest and, in some cases, to provide links to other sites. With legions of YouTube users, Flickr photographers and anonymous bloggers posting floods of their own, largely unsupervised material, it’s impossible for publishers using automation to exercise total control.

“No matter how sophisticated you make these automated systems, you’re not going to make them perfect, and all you can really strive for is to tune them as you go along,” said Lauren Weinstein, co-founder of People for Internet Responsibility. Still, he said, in this case “it’s pretty clear there was a lapse in terms of the quality control of Yahoo’s keyword list.”