Focus on… Blog Jargon

Whether you’re new to blogging or already writing articles online, you’ll no doubt have heard a abundance of jargon terms which made you lift an eyebrow.

Don’t worry – you’re not alone. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of common blogging terms along with plain English descriptions

Technorati

An Internet search engine specifically for blogs. It works by looking at the tags or keywords which authors place on their blogs. Each blog is also rated on the popularity and authority by looking at the number of inbound links, similarly to Google. (http://www.technorati.com/)

Tag Could

A visual representation of specific keywords (tags), or sometimes all of the content on a website. Important or common tags are usually displayed in a stronger typeface or larger font size. The tags are commonly linked to a search page for the specific word, allowing users to find popular articles without typing in a search query.

Blogosphere

The virtual community of blogs on the internet, inter-connected by links to and from each blog website. When people talk of the ‘Blogosphere’, they are referring to opinion and trending topics across the vast number of blogs on the Internet.

Permalink

A permanent link to an article on a blog, which remains unchanged indefinitely. As such, they are commonly used by other websites or blogs linking to an article on a specific blog. Such links invariably contain the date or time from when the article was created, as such information identifies the article more specifically than just a title.

CMS

A Content Management System is a piece of software which can be installed on a web server, allowing the administrator to manage and control a large, dynamic collection of material. There are several CMS applications which have been developed specifically for blogging purposes.

RSS / Atom

Feed formats used to publish frequently updated works, such as blog entries, in a standardized format. These feeds allow readers of blogs to ‘subscribe’ to the blog using an RSS or feed reader, updating them automatically of new articles without having to visit the website continually.

Trackback

A method for an author of a post to request a notification when someone links to one if their articles. This allows blogs and their authors to communicate with each other. Linking between blogs is useful as it means conversations spanning several blogs can be easily followed by readers.

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