Closely tied to the new search capabilities is Managed Metadata. Central to most custom Notes applications are keyword fields, which range from simple pop-up or drop-down lists of terms that users can select from (for example, product codes) to lookups in other views and databases (for example, customer numbers). Some Notes solutions even include custom term-management databases where users could centrally manage the terms, codes, and other resource documents used by other Notes applications.
A powerful new feature of SharePoint 2010 is Managed Metadata (also referred to as Enterprise Metadata). Now SharePoint enables you to manage all the terms that are important to a particular application domain (the keywords, product codes, customer types, document categories, etc.) in a shared term store. SharePoint 2010 includes a complete interface that enables administrators to maintain terms, along with the following features: aliases, translation, context and hierarchy.