Ajax: Shorthand for "Asynchronous JavaScript and XML", a web development technique for creating interactive web applications

Atom: Syndication format for creating and updating Web resources

Blog: An online journal where the entries are (usually) published in reverse chronology (with the most recent first) and updated on a frequent basis. Written in a personal, conversational style, usually around a defined topic, it is maintained individually or by a group of people. It facilitates participation by posting comments, allows seeing the original references though links and trackbacks and can be subscribed to via RSS feeds

Blogfeed: 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

Blogosphere: The universe of blogs

Blogroll: A set of favourites blogs linked by the blogger, usually in a vertical menu along the side of her/ his blog page

CGM: Consumer-generated media

Content Communities: Online communities focused on sharing a particular type of content such as photographs (e.g. Flickr), videos (e.g. You Tube) and similar to social networks (one can have a home page, post comments, make connections with people etc)

Digg: A social ranking website that allows the user to participate in determining all site content by promoting (‘digging’) or removing (‘burying’) news, video, podcasts or other stories posted by users. In this ‘digital media democracy’, the user acts as the editor. There are many other similar sites/ concepts available today

Folksonomy: The practice of categorising web content using labels called tags. Being user-generated makes the information more personal and easy to search and navigate

Flog: A fake blog

Mashup: A website or application that combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience For example: Geogreeting.com

Moblog: A blog created with the help of mobile devices such as PDAs or phones

Newsreader: A website or piece of software used to read newsfeed that is subscribed to via RSS. One can subscribe to favourite blogs and news using newsreader services such as Bloglines, Rojo and Newsgator or desktop readers such as Sage and iFetch (www.ideafarms.com)

Podcast: Audio or video files that are published on the internet can be subscribed to and be downloaded to iPods or other MP3 players, through RSS

RSS: Really Simple Syndication is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, podcasts, news feeds etc. Users can subscribe to feeds and read, and organise content through online or desktop ' feed readers'.

Second Life: An Internet-based virtual world, developed by Linden Lab, a downloadable client program. It enables its users, called "Residents", to interact with each other through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse. Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items (virtual property) and services from one another

Skypecasting: Use of the Skype voice over IP software to record teleconferences with participants across geographical locations and recording it as podcasts that allows the audio/video content to be distributed over the internet

Splog: A spam blog set up with the intent of falsely raising their ratings in search engines

Social Bookmarking: Storing and sharing bookmarks/favourites on the web, instead of inside the browser. Hence it allows one to view the bookmarks from anywhere and allows share them publicly for reference and collaboration

Social Networking: Online groups that allow people to connect with friends to share content and communication

Tags: One-word descriptors that act as keywords but are non-hierarchical. They help to categorise information in a personalised manner, making the information search-friendly

Tag Cloud: A visual depiction of content tags used on a website. Size of the tag cloud represents the number of times that tag has been applied to a single item or the number of items to which a tag has been applied, as a presentation of each tag's popularity

Tagometer: Social bookmarking button by del.icio.us that includes an updated count of users who've already bookmarked the page, as well as a fresh list of the top tags applied

Technorati: Search engine for blogs that allows tracking blogs by popularity and relevance. Also a very popular blog listing service.

Trackback:A piece of programming that shows a blogger who is linking to their blog

Vlog: Video blog

Widget: A web gadget and can be embedded within a page of HTML/web page. It lends non-static content and is commonly used by bloggers, social network users and others to enhance the appeal of their webpage

Web 2.0: A phrase coined by Tim O’ Reilly, Web 2.0 refers to a perceived or proposed second generation of Internet-based services—such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies—that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users

Wiki: Collaborative spaces that that allow people to contribute or edit content on them. They can be as private or as open as the people who create it want it to be

Compiled from various sources on the Internet, this is just a start out list. Also see www.wikipedia.com for more information on these and other terms.

Point us more such terms that you would like included and any errors that may have cropped in. Reach us at conversations@blogworks.in