Add new tables or use WP tables in new plugin?

I’d like to create a plugin that will add tags to blogroll links. I looked at the WP database to see if there would be a good way to do this, but WP treats blogroll links differently than post categories and post tags.

I was thinking about adding two new tables to the WP database, one for storing link tags and another for storing the link-tag relationships. This would head off any problems if the rest of the WP database should change. However, I’m a WP newb, so there may be unrelated problems in this method.

Any advice? I’d eventually be building other plugins to track most-used links, find related links by tag, etc. I’m surprised that this functionality doesn’t already exist, which is why I’m being cautious — there’s a chance that the functionality may pop up in the future, and my changes might cause problems.

Thanks,

Michael
michaelandchrissy.com