Adding an additional option to wp_tag_cloud, perhaps using custom query

Hello,

The basic thing I am trying to achieve is finding a simpler way to display a “tag cloud” (type=list) in the sidebar including only a specific list of tags. Ideally this would have been done through the include argument. But I have over 350 tags and that would become rather complicated.

The options I did think that could be done (I don’t exactly know how) is to:
1) assign posts containing the tag to an additional category i.e. “featured” and only displaying a list of tags associated with that category. perhaps by defining a custom query.

2) If there was a simpler way to select the tags to include. for example there is a similar functioning widget available for widgets. i.e. http://srinig.com/wordpress/plugins/flexi-pages/

Any help would be much appreciated.

Regards,

Dheer