Glossary

Excerpted from Glossary of Web2.0 Terms

Aggregator

(or news aggregator or feed reader)

An aggregator is a software or online service that uses a Web feed to retrieve syndicated Web content such as Weblogs, podcast, vlogs, and mainstream mass media Web sites, or in the case of a search aggregator, a customized set of search results.

Feed readers keep checking Web sites to see if they have been updated. If so, they display the title, and a link to it, with an excerpt (or the whole contents) of the new information. Each feed contains items that are published over time. When checking a feed, the feed reader is actually looking for new items. New items are automatically discovered and downloaded for you to read. You don’t have to visit all the Web sites you are interested in: you just add the feeds of these Web sites to the feed reader.

Blog

(Weblog – usally shortened to blog)

Blog is an abbreviated version of Weblog, which is a term used to describe Web sites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information. A blog is a frequently updated, personal Web site featuring diary-type commentary and links to articles or other Web sites. Blogs range from the personal to the political and can focus on one narrow subject or a whole range of subjects.

Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of most early blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual although some focus on photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media.

Folksonomy Folksonomy is used to categorize and retrieve Web pages, photographs, Web links and other Web content using open ended labels called tags. Typically, folksonomies are Internet-based, but their use may occur in other contexts as well. The process of folksonomic tagging is intended to make a body of information increasingly easier to search, discover, and navigate over time. A well-developed folksonomy is ideally accessible as a shared vocabulary that is both originated by, and familiar to, its primary users. Two widely cited examples of Web sites using folksonomic tagging are Flickr and del.icio.us.

Or more formal: A folksonomy is a user generated taxonomy and taxonomic classification is the act of placing an object or concept into a set or sets of categories, based on the properties of the object or concept.

Mash-up The term mash-up refers to a new breed of Web-based applications to mix at least two different services from disparate and even competing, Web sites. A mash-up, for example, could overlay traffic data from one source on the Internet over maps from Yahoo, Microsoft, Google or any content provider.
Open source software Open-source software refers to any computer software whose source code is available under a license (or arrangement such as the public domain) that permits users to study, change and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified form. It is often developed in a public, collaborative manner.
RSS RSS is a family of Web feed formats, specified in XML and used for Web syndication. RSS is used by (among other things) news Web sites, Weblogs and podcasting. RRS is alternately defined as Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication.
Social software Social software is a type of software or Web service that allows people to communicate and collaborate while using the application. E-mail, blogs, and even instant messaging are all examples of social software. Many advocates of using these tools believe that these create actual community, and have adopted the term “online communities” to describe the social structures that they claim result.
Tag A tag is a (relevant) keyword or term associated with a piece of information (like a picture, article, Web site, or video clip), thus describing the item. Typically, an item will have more than one tag associated with it.

Tags are chosen informally and personally by the author/creator or the consumer of the item – i.e. not as part of some formally defined classification scheme.

Wiki A wiki is a Web site that allows visitors to add, remove, edit and change content. It also allows for linking among any number of pages. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring. The term wiki also can refer to the collaborative software itself (wiki engine) that facilitates the operation of such a site, or to certain specific wiki sites, like encyclopediassuch as Wikipedia.

For more Web 2.0 terms, see Glossary of Web2.0 Terms

Leave a Reply