With over 3 million blogs created in the third quarter of 2006 and around 1,000 blogs coming online every day according to Technorati, people might get confused by all the industry buzz words and lingo.
If you’re just looking for some basic blog terminology so you can feel like you’re “part of it,” then read on. If you’re looking for something a bit more advanced, check back in a few days for more advanced blog terminology.
Here are some important terms to know and why they are important to you. Even if it’s just to impress your nerd friend with terms like moblogging and other blargon.
Blog: Essentially a contraction of the words web log, or the word weblog, whichever you prefer. Blogs are coming to mean different things to different people, but basically a blog is a way to push content (usually chronologically) on a page, much like a journal.
Aggregator: An aggregator can help you to read content from blogs without having to go to the actual page. It is a piece of software that combines excerpts or updates from blogs so you can read them on your computer or browser without going to the original site. Below are some sites from which you can download aggregators (some for your computer, some for your browser). It is also useful to know that some other terms that refer to the same basic definition of an aggregator. These other terms include feed reader, feed aggregator, news reader, news aggregator and RSS aggregator and reader.
Desktop:
Feed Reader
News Gator (FeedDemon)
Browser:
Bloglines
Rojo
RSS Reader
Blogger: This term can be used two different ways. It can mean any person who publishes content to a blog or it can refer to Google’s hosted blog service, Blogger. When referring to Google’s Blogger site, the “B” is usually capitalized; when talking about someone who posts content to a blog, the “b” is not necessarily capitalized.
Blogosphere: Generally, this encompasses all the blogs (commercial, personal, etc.) in the blogging community.
Blogroll: This refers to a list of links to other blogs that the author(s) of a blog also read regularly. The blogroll is usually located on the sidebar on the blog page. So if you like what you are reading, you mightwant to check out some other blogs that might also interest you and “blogroll” them.
Permalink: This is another contraction from the term permanent link.Essentially it is a way to keep a URL for a particular blog entry or post.
Post: This is any published content on a blog. A blog is comprised of individual posts that are arranged in chronological order, usually with the most recent on top.
Comment: This allows people who are reading the blog to comment on the author’s opinion or offer supplemental information or anything else related to the post they wish to have published in the comments section (below the post). Feel free to comment on this post with any relevant information or anything you would like to see here that you can’t find.
Ping: This is a notice that goes out when a blog is updated. When blogs are updated they “ping” certain sites and services letting them know that their blog is updated. Tag: This is a label assigned to a blog entry to categorize or help define its content. The use of tags was initiated by Technorati and they use tags to organize blogs in their system. These terms are basic terms that users and novice bloggers should be familiar with so they can talk intelligently about what they do and understand what others are saying. If you’re looking for some more detailed blog terminology, I will be putting up additional terms as well as resources for sprucing up and optimizing your blog.
About the Author
Geoff is based in LA and has experience in Public Relations and New Business Development for companies such as SS|PR, Grey Direct West, Acclivity Inc. and others. He is currently the LA sales manager for Social Media Systems online marketing company and co-authors the 3net Search Engine Marketing Blog.
