Common Blog Terms

Blogging, like any hobby, has developed something of a specialised vocabulary. The following is an attempt to explain a few of the more common phrases and words, including etymologies when not obvious.

Audioblog
A blog where the posts consist mainly of voice recordings sent by mobile phone, sometimes with some short text message added for metadata purposes. (cf. podcasting)

Bleg
A blog entry consisting of a request to the readers, such as for information or contributions. A portmanteau of "blog" and "beg".

Blog Feed
The XML-based file in which the blog hosting software places a machine-readable version of the blog so that it may be "syndicated" for further distribution on the web. Formats such as RSS and Atom are used to structure the XML file.

Blogfoo
Statements written with an air of generality while obviously pointed at a specific person or group of people.

Blog Hopping
to follow links from one blog entry to another, with related side-trips to various articles, sites, discussion forums, and more.

Blogorrhoea
A portmanteau of "blog" and "diarrhea", meaning excessive and/or incoherent talkativeness in a weblog.

Blogroll
A list of blogs. Usually a blogger features a list of his favorite blogs in the sidebar of his blog. These lists can be made dynamic using services like BlogRolling.

Blog Site
The web location (URL) of a blog, which may be either a dedicated domain, a sub-domain, or embedded within a web site.

Blogsite
Sometimes confused with a simple blog or blog site, but a blogsite is a web site which combines blog feeds from a variety of sources, as well as non-blog sources, and adds significant value over the raw blog feeds.

Blogsnob
A person who refuses to respond to comments on their blog from people outside their circle of friends.

Dark Blog
A non-public blog (e.g. behind a firewall)

Moblog
A portmanteau of "mobile" and "blog". A blog featuring posts sent mainly by mobile phone, using SMS or MMS messages. They are often photoblogs.

Permalink
Permanent link. The unique URL of a single post. Use this when you want to link to a post somewhere.

Ping
The alert in the TrackBack system that notifies the original poster of a blog post when someone else writes an entry concerning the original post.

TrackBack
A system that allows a blogger to see who has seen the original post and has written another entry concerning it. The system works by sending a 'ping' between the blogs, and therefore providing the alert.

[ post updated 2004 ]