zOMG! I can’t believe you’re such a n00b and don’t know all of these terms off by heart!
Just in case you don’t yet have l33t skills (and let’s face it who has the time to keep up with every new term or Internet meme?), please find below a glossary of all things web x.0 / social / future tech / [insert your own term here].
Consider this a permanent work in progress.
Suggestions and corrections most welcome.
A
Adsense: Google’s pay-per-click, context-relevant program available to blog and web publishers as a way to create revenue
Advertising network: Sells ads across multiple publishers in order to optimise ad delivery based on the user rather than context eg. Adknowledge, RockYou, Social Cash, DoubleClick/Google
Adwords: The advertiser program that populates the Adsense program. Advertisers can bid on keywords
Affiliate marketing: Affiliate marketing is a partnership between a website owner (affiliate) and a retailer (affiliate merchant) whereby the website owner advertises the retailer on their site and receives a fee for every lead or sale generated
Aggregator: A web-based tool or desktop application that collects syndicated content
AJAX: An acronym (Asynchronous Java Script and XML) representing a way to create more interactive and intuitive Web applications. Rather than having to reload the whole page for every update and Ajax enabled page can refresh just the relevant parts as needed
Akismet: Comment spam filter popular with WordPress blogs
Anonoblog: A blog site authored by a person or persons who don’t publish their name
API: An acronym (Application Programming Interface) representing a computer system or application allowing for requests to be made of it by other programs allowing for data to be exchanged
AstroTurfing: A fake grass roots push to generate buzz or interest in a product, service, or idea
Avatar: A graphical image or likeness (possibly) that replaces a photo of the author of the content on a blog
B
Back channel: Communications sent by the facilitator or between individuals during public conferencing. Often the most entertaining part of the whole event
Blogroll: An assembly of blog URLs – blogs that the blogger claims to read regularly – displayed at the sidebar of the blog
Blog: A website where individual(s) provide entries of any type of content from video and podcasts to traditional text and photos in order to inform or create discussions
Blog Aggregator: A web site that keeps track of blog posts. Submitting a blog to an aggregator can increase exposure and get your content in front of a wider audience (potentially doubling your readership from two to four people..)
Blogosphere: A common term used to describe the large and diverse community of people who contribute to blogs. Some bloggers are very influential and reach a large audience, allowing news to travel quickly among this community. This is the factor causing many companies to monitor and reach out to the blogosphere to protect and promote their brand identity
C
Chatroulette: Created by a 17-year-old Russian and found at chatroulette.com this site offers random video chat connections. Each session guaranteed to include at least one sad guy masturbating into the ether. Almost certainly NSFW!
Cloud computing:(aka ‘the Cloud’): Refers to the growing phenomenon of users who can access their data from anywhere rather than being tied to a particular machine. Get ready to be hit from every angle by data and applications moving up ‘in the cloud’ during 2010.
Contextual ads: Adverts placed directly inside or next to relevant content or features. One of Google’s specialties.
CPA (Cost Per Action): The publisher is remunerated based on specific actions the user does
CPC (Cost Per Click): The publisher is remunerated when the user clicks on an advert link – eg. Google Adwords
CPM (Cost Per Mile (thousand impressions)): The publisher is remunerated every time the user sees the advert. Eg. DoubleClick ads
CPI (Cost Per Install): A specific type of CPA where the action is the installation of an application
Crowdsourcing: Outsourcing online activities to a group (usually individuals). Has been used for tech support, testing, design, creative work, competitions, secret santas(!) and more
D
Dashboard: The administration area on your blog software that allows you to post, check traffic, upload files, manage comments, etc
Date-Based Archives: The archives of a blog site, organized by time-stamp. Almost every blog will have some form of time-stamp and many archives are listed along the sidebar. Some list in weekly, but most on a month-by-month basis
Delicious: A social bookmarking site. Allows users to quickly store, organize (by tags) and share favorite web pages. You can also subscribe to RSS feeds of other users and share a page specifically with another user
Digg: See ‘Social News’
Domain Name: The identifying name of an internet site
Dooced: A term associated with someone getting fired for the content written in a blog post or web site. Not for the act of writing, but for what was published. Taken from the site Dooced (by an author who once vented about her company — and got fired because of what was written).
E
Earned Media: Media that an organisation does not own, but is earned through reputation, word of mouth etc. Essentially, customers (or followers, friends and so on) become the channel.
Ecosystem: A community and their environment functioning as a whole. The blogosphere can be viewed as an ecosystem
Edublog: A blog site focused on education, be it teacher, administrator, consultant or student
Embedding: The act of adding code to a website so that a video or photo can be displayed while it’s being hosed at another site
Enterprise 2.0: The application of Web 2.0 concepts in a corporate environment. Mixed stories of success
Entry: An individual post or article published on a blog
Event Blog: A blog specifically launched as a companion to an event
F
Face-to-face: (aka F2F) is used to describe the bizarre notion of people meeting offline. In real-life!
Feed: The RSS or Atom feeds used by news aggregators (aka feed readers)
FeedBlitz: An RSS service that makes it easy for those addicted to email
FeedBurner: Tool allowing web sites, blogs and podcasts to “burn” content into a simple way for readers to subscribe
Feed Reader: An aggregator of content, subscribed to by the user, so that specific content arrives in their “reader”
Findability: Refers to being locatable. Though tied closely with Information Architecture on the Web, particularly within one site, findability has also become a popular term in creating a findable, locatable and navigable presence on and across the web and social networking
Flash mob: Is a group of individuals (usually art students or unemployed hippies) who gather and disperse with little notice for a specific purpose through text messages, social media or viral emails. Activities include silent discos, pointing, nakedness and standing very still
Folksonomy: The collective indexing by use of tags, labels or keywords by the consumers of the content. Eg. del.icio.us
Forums: Discussion areas on websites, where people can post messages or comment on existing messages asynchronously – that is, independently of time or place
Friend (noun): A person with whom you have a mutually agreed connection. Almost certainly someone you’ve either never really met, haven’t seen for ten years or dated in high-school and felt like stalking
Friend (verb): The act of adding a person to your social graph on a particular social network. Eg. “friend me on Facebook”
G
Geotagging: Is the process of adding location-based metadata to media such as photos, video or online maps
H
HTML: The acronym for HyperText Markup Language. The coding language used to create and link together documents and files on the World Wide Web
Hashtag: A community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. You add them in-line to your Twitter posts by prefixing a word with a hash symbol (or number sign). Twitter users often use a hashtag like #followfriday to aggregate, organize and discover relevant posts
Hat Tip: A hat tip is a public acknowledgment to someone (or a website) for bringing something to the blogger’s attention. Also known as H/T
Hits: A measurement used in Web analytics, a “hit” is often defined as any request for a file from a Web server
Hyperlink: A navigational reference to another document or page on the World Wide Web
Hyper-local: Website, group or community focussed on information in and about the immediate geographical area. For example, reviews and contact information for local small businesses. Much hyped for some time, but not quite there yet. Keep an eye on this one.
L
Lifecasting: Broadcast of events in a person’s life through digital media, most of which are of interest to the person themselves and their mother
Long Tail: Coined by a writer for Wired Magazine - Chris Anderson. Refers to the ability of e-tailers such as Amazon being able to tap into the large number of specialist sales opportunities available at the fringes of traditional retail, which together make up a huge opportunity
Lurker: Someone who reads content but rarely contributes
M
Mashup: The term mashup refers to a breed of Web application where content, data, or other services are combined from more than one source into an integrated experience. Probably the most popular involve overlaying data onto a map (e.g crime stats, bars etc)
Meme: A phrase or term that gets picked up and re-used in discussion forums and comments. For example: ‘In Soviet Russia..’, ‘I for one welcome our [insert scary thing] overlords’, ‘pwned’, ‘roflcopter’, ‘will it blend?’ and a million more. For further info spend half an hour on Digg or check out http://knowyourmeme.com/memes
MicroBlogging: A form of blogging allowing users to compose brief text updates and publish them. These messages can be submitted and received by a variety of means and devices, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, mobile device or the web. Probably the best known right now is Twitter
Moblogs: A blog published directly to the web from a phone or other mobile device
Monetisation: The strange alien concept of making money from your online property. Usually by display advertising, subscription, affiliate links, or context advertising (eg. sponsored ads on search). Possibly even through providing value-add services and (*shock*) charging money for them!
MyBlogLog: A community and social networking site that tracks traffic and visits to member sites
N
Navigation (Nav): A menu of links or buttons allowing users to move from one web page to another within a site
Network Effect: The premise that any network becomes more valuable to both ownership and membership as as more people join it
News Aggregator: A web-based tool or desktop application that collects syndicated content
NoFollow: An HTML attribute instructing search engines to not allow a hyperlink to a web page to be influenced in ranking by that link
NSFW: ‘Not Safe For Work’. You can do the math. Also the name of a TechCrunch column by expat pommie journalist Paul Carr, where each article is guaranteed to have at least one comment saying ‘what’s NSFW about this?’
O
OpenID: Single sign-on system that allows Internet users to log on to many different sites using a single digital identity, eliminating the need for a different user name and password for each site
OpenSocial: A technology for deploying the same application across multiple platforms
Owned Media: Media/channel that is owned by an organisation or individual. E.g web site, blog, Twitter feed etc. See also Earned Media
P
Permalinks: Are the permanent URLs to your individual weblog posts, as well as categories and other lists of weblog postings. A permalink is what another weblogger will use to link to your article (or section), or how you might send a link to your story in an e-mail message
Podcast – Online audio or visual recording available to download to portable media players such as an iPod. Can be syndicated and available through applications such as iTunes
Poke: A method of communication on a social network, guaranteed to annoy the recipient after the twentieth email notification of such
Property: A generic term for a page, application, widget or web site
R
RSS Feed: Really Simple Syndication; a form of syndication that lets users “subscribe” to receive new or updated content from blogs, news, or other frequently updated online content sources. RSS feeds are typically received by a “newsreader” inside a user’s browser or email program – some applications can also send RSS feeds to mobile devices.
Increasingly, corporations are using RSS as a way to communicate with customers and prospects by making RSS an option for newsletters, product updates and other messages
S
Screencast: Is a video that captures what takes place on a computer screen, usually accompanied by audio narration. A screencast is often created to explain how a website or piece of software works, but it can be any piece of explanatory video that strings together images or visual elements
SEO: Acronym for Search Engine Optimization. The dark art of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via search results
Search Engine Marketing (SEM): A form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs). According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, SEM methods include: search engine optimization (or SEO), paid placement, contextual advertising, sacrificing chickens and paid inclusion
Sidebar:A column (or multiple columns) along either or both sides of a blog site’s main content area. The sidebar is often includes contact information of the author, the blog’s purpose and categories, links to archives, honors and other widgets the author includes on the site
SMO: Acronym for Social Media Optimization
Social Action: An interaction on a social network that triggers a story to be posted to a user’s profile. E.g. “Frank just updated his status to bi-curious”
Social Bookmarking: A method for people to search, organize, store and share items (i.e. blog posts, online articles, pictures, etc.) of interest using the item’s URL
Social capital: Refers to the goodwill and positive reputation that flows to a person through his or her relationships with others in social networks
Social Media: Works of user-created video, audio, text or multimedia that are published and shared in a social environment, such as a blog, podcast, forum, wiki or video hosting site. More broadly, social media refers to any online technology that lets people publish, converse and share content online
Social Networking Sites: Sites that host multiple communities comprised of people with profiles who have with similar interests. These sites offer a place where people engage with one another online and share content. Example communities include Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Orkut, Bebo, Friendster and many more!
Social news: Social news sites encourage users to submit and vote on news stories or other links, thus determining which links are showcased. Examples include Digg and Mixx
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS): In most cases, SaaS involves software that is delivered via the Internet as a hosted solution.
Spambot: Naughty automatic software robots that post spam on a blog
Splog: Nickname for Spam Blogs, or blogs not providing their own or real content. Sploggers use automated tools to create fake blogs full of links or scraped content from other sites in order to boost search engine results
Style or Style sheet: Definition file or files that determines the look and feel of a site
Syndication: Allows your blog content to be distributed more widely online
T
Tag: a keyword or term associated and assigned to an item of content (i.e. blog post, video, photo, etc.). Usually added to an item of content to enhance search engine optimization and make it easier to organize and find content. Once seen as a search silver bullet until people began drowning in tag clouds and gaming the system
Tag cloud: visual representation of the popularity of the tags or descriptions that people are using on a blog or website. Popular tags are often shown in a large type and less popular tags in smaller type
Trackback: Trackback is a method for web authors to request notification when somebody links to one of their documents or web pages. Trackbacks are used primarily to facilitate communication between weblogs.
This can be an effective way to network with other blogs – and perhaps get more exposure as well as search engine optimization. The downside is that it could be perceived as spam (especially if the trackback is not relevant to the blog)
Troll: Someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion. Please do not feed them
Tweet: A post on Twitter
Tweetup: An organized or impromptu gathering of people who use Twitter. Users often include a hashtag, such as #tweetup or #sftweetup, when publicizing a local tweetup
Twitter: Twitter is a popular micro-blogging network that lets members post updates of no more than 140 characters. According to Robert Scoble, if you aren’t using it you are a very very rude person (most likely French)
Twitterverse: Akin to blogs and the blogosphere, the Twitterverse is simply the universe of people who use Twitter and the conversations taking place within that sphere
U
URL: The technical term for a web address
User Generated Content(UGC): UGC refers to various kinds of media content that are produced or primarily influenced by end-users vs. traditional content publishers. This is a broad term that describes online tools that allow users to share and express content, such as blogs, wikis, and podcasts
V
Videoblog (or vlog): A blog that contains video entries, or is just a video entry. Some people call it video podcasting, vodcasting or vlogging
Viralocity: The number of new users gained for each user. eg. a viralocity of 1 means for each user one new user is gained
Virtual world: Online computer-simulated space like Second Life that mixes aspects of real life with fantasy elements
Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP): Enables you to use a computer or other Internet device for phone calls. E.g. Skype
W
Wall: Shared discussion board specifically about an individual and displayed on the individual profile
Web 2.0: Who really knows? Loosely defined by the sense of user-generated content, communities, social networking, Ajax, tags and RSS amongst other things. Coined around 2004, probably by Tim O’Reilly, the term is fading and being replaced by the semantic and real-time web
Web analytics: The measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of Internet data for the purpose of understanding who your visitors are and optimizing your website
Webinar: An online seminar
Wiki: Webpage(s) used to collect content about a topic. Anyone with appropriate access to the page(s) can edit or modify the information. Best known is almost certainly wikipedia [citation needed]
