Blog

Web Log.  A blog is a website maintained by an individual or group that is characterized by a persistent record of old content and the regular addition of new content.  A typical blog will present these entries in reverse chronological order.

Blogroll

A list of recommended blogs that is typically displayed in a persistent sidebar

Blogosphere

The whole of the blogging world, including all blogs and those who write them

Embedding

Placing a pre-written piece of code into your blog or website so that you can display a video, widget, banner, or content block created by someone else.  By giving your visitors embeddable code you can ensure that material you produce will link back to your own site.

Lifecasting

The continual broadcast of daily life through digital media

Linklog

An online list of links to other sites (typically used to facilitate research into a particular topic)

Microblog

A blog of short posts which typically have a pre-defined length limit. Twitter and Tumblr are both well known microblogging services.

Photoblog

A dynamic online gallery of photographs.  Some Photoblogs use standard blogging services like Blogger and Wordpress, others use dedicated online photo galleries like Flickr, but to really customize your photoblog presentation it is best to consult with a CMS specialist.

Ping

An automated process that tells a search engine, aggregators, and individual blogs that you have updated your blog and that there is a reason for them to look at what you have written.  It is considered good form to ping any blog that you’ve quoted or referenced.

Podcast

A regular video or audio broadcast released through RSS or other web syndication

RSS

Really Simple Syndication.  By using RSS any blogger can create a “feed” of their content so that subscribers can read it from an aggregator of their choice.  Since most e-mail programs now include RSS readers, this means a subscriber can read your blog direct from their own inbox.  It also means that your content can be easily republished, a key factor for anyone seeking to go viral.

Video Blog (a.k.a Vlog and Vidblog)

A blog that presents a portion of its content through an embedded online video.  A typical vlog presentation will place the current video entry in a central location with links to other related videos on one side and a space for written comments below.

Viral

Content that has been spread throughout the web by viewers and readers.  You can make your content easier to spread by using embeddable code.

Webcomic

A serial comic that uses online syndication to publish one strip or one page at a time.  Web comics typically display one entry per webpage, and are built to facilitate both chronological and reverse chronological browsing of the archive.