One of the most difficult things about starting to blog is understanding all of the terminology. This post is a glossary of common Blogger terms to help. If there is any terms that you’d like to see defined that aren’t here, feel free to comment.
Common Blogger Terminology:
Archives: A list of all of your blog posts categorized by month, week or day usually appearing in your sidebar.
Atom: A web feed format that allows users to subscribe to your blog and receive updates when new blogs are posted. This is the default site feed for Blogger.
Blogroll: A link list of other blogs that you read placed in your sidebar.
Labels/Categories - A collection of topic specific posts that you can list in your sidebar using a Blogger gadget. Note – individual blog posts can have multiple labels.
BlogThis: A function allows a blogger to blog the entry they a reading. To use BlogThis for Blogger, drag this link BlogThis into your bookmarks and click on it when you are on a webpage you’d like to post a blog about.
Captcha: Stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”. Those word and letter verification images you need to type in to show you are human and not a bot. Helpful to block automated spam comments.
Comments: Allow readers to leave their remarks on your blog posts. You can choose whether you wish to have comments go up with or without moderation.
Dashboard: When you login to your blogging account, it is the first screen with all controls, tools and functions.
Footer: The bottom part of the blog where you usually find navigation and copyright statements.
Gadgets/plugins/widgets: Small files or mini applications that add improved functionality and new features to your blog.
Header: The top section of the blog where you will find the blog title and description.
Index page: The blog homepage or front page.
Open Id: OpenID is a shared identity service, which allows Internet users to log on to many different web sites using a single digital identity. Many large sites are now participating in OpenID which means you can login by verifying that you have an account with another site that uses OpenID.
Post: Individual articles that make up a blog.
RSS: A web feed format used to syndicate content that allows users to subscribe to your blog and receive updates when new blogs are posted.
Sidebar: A column in your template that runs along one or both sides of your blogs homepage.
Tags: Tags are one-word descriptors – this is how systems categorize content so that you and other users can find it.
Tag cloud: A tag cloud is a list of all the tags used within a single blog post or page. Many tag clouds make tags larger depending on how often the word gets used on the page.
Template: A template defines the layout of your Blog. Think of your template as a master page on which you can globally edit and format graphic elements and text common to each page of your blog.
Web Feed: Allows online users to subscribe to websites that add new content regularly.
XML: eXtensible Markup Language (XML): A widely accepted way of sharing information over the Internet in a standard, generic way that all systems can understand.
