A fundamental problem in modern genomics is to taxonomically or functionally classify DNA sequence fragments derived from environmental sampling (i.e., metagenomics). Several different methods have been proposed for doing this effectively and efficiently, and many have been implemented in software. In addition to varying their basic algorithmic approach to classification, some methods screen sequence reads for barcoding genes like 16S rRNA, or various types of protein-coding genes. Due to the sheer number and complexity of methods, it can be difficult for a researcher to choose one that is well-suited for a particular analysis.