Methods and apparatus relating to the generation, management and use of taxonomies are described. Over time statistics are collected based on the user interaction and the effectiveness of the taxonomy determined with respect to one or more groups of users. Decisions are automatically made when a new e.g., custom, taxonomy is to be generated for a set of users. Over time multiple custom taxonomies are generated for different user groups with each group of users being provided access to items through the taxonomy which provides the best results for the group. Generated taxonomies are compared and merged or combined when similar to avoid the generation and maintenance of a large number of similar taxonomies.