The basic classification techniques for organizing information are thesauri, taxonomy
and faceted classification. Topic map is relatively a new entrant to this information space. Topic map standard describes how complex relationships between abstract concepts and real world resources can be represented using XML syntax. This paper explores how topic map incorporates the traditional techniques and what are its advantages and disadvantages in several dimensions such as content management, indexing, knowledge representation, constraint specification and query languages in the context of information retrieval. The constructs of topic maps are illustrated with a use-case implemented in XTM.