A while back, I mentioned doing a post on defining some terms that we bloggers like to throw around. Have you ever seen a word or acronym used over and over and never knew what it meant? Seemed like everyone else in the blogosphere (the wonderful world of blogs…first term defined) knew but you, right? I know I felt that way constantly when I first started blogging.

So I offer today an short blogging glossary, of sorts. I’m bound to forget a very common one, so please feel free to add your own term and definition if you think it would be helpful to others.

Here we go, in alphabetical order:

Badge/Banner – A visual square or rectangle image representing your blog or site, similar to an avatar. Typically displayed in a sidebar.

Blinky – Another term for “Animated GIF”, an image or badge that rotates between several frames, thus “blinking”.

Blog Tour or Carnival – A group of blogs participating in a common theme or topic, each posting on their own blog and often “linked” together by Mr. Linky (see below)

Blogger/BlogSpot – A simple to use blogging platformed, owned by Google.

Blogroll – A list of blogs that the author of a blog reads, acting somewhat as a list of recommended reading.

Del.icio.us – A social bookmarking site where users can collectively tag favorite links, creating popular content.

Digg – Another social bookmarking site where users can collectively tag favorite links, creating popular content.

Feedburner – a professional feed management system, owned by Google.

FTP - short for “file transfer protocol”. A method of transferring files to and from your web host using FTP tools like Filezilla.

.gif – An image file format, used for its compressibility, for line art or graphics viewed on screen.

.jpg – An image file format, used for its compressibility, for photographs viewed on screen.

Kirtsy – A social bookmarking site (geared somewhat to women) where users can collectively tag favorite links, creating popular content.

Meme – A questionnaire or survey passed from one blog to another, cascading throughout the blogosphere.

Mr. Linky – A widget that allows blogger to link up at the “hub” of a blogging carnival (see above)

Navbar - a navigation bar usually seen at the top of a blog, listing the pages within the blog horizontally.

Permalink - The unique URL of a single post on a blog, used when anyone wants to link specifically to a post rather than the blog itself. (Example: This post’s URL is “http://www.thepixelboutique.com/2009/10/blog-speak“)

Plugins - Files that add functionality and new features. (Example: WordPress has a plugin called “Akismet” which searches and flags spam comments automatically.)

Reciprocal Link – Linking to a blog that links back to you; primarily used to improve search engine rankings.

StumbleUpon – A browsing tool used to discover and share web sites, based on user recommendations

TypePad – An all inclusive blogging and hosting platform run by SixApart.

Tweetdeck – A freeware Twitter application.

Twitter – A social media application used to update others on what you or your blog/business are doing.

Twitter Party – A designated gathering where a topic or event is discussed, using a predetermined term proceeded by a hash tag so it can be easily searched (i.e. #gno…short for Girl’s Night Out).

Tag – A word or phrased attached to a post to help describe the content and make it more searchable.

Tag cloud – A visual display of tags or keywords used in a blog.

Technorati – a real-time search engine that adds a rank to a blog according to its popularity.

Vlogging - Short for “video blogging”. A form of blogging using video instead of text.

Web Hosting – An internet web service that offers web server space for purchase by individuals and organizations.

Widget – A small snippet of code that adds functionality to your blog, usually in the sidebar, such as a categories list, blogroll, “grab my button” code, links, etc.

wordpress.org – Open source blogging application, used in conjunction with a domain name and a hosting account.