A ~ Avatar
Avatars are graphical images that represent people. They don’t have to be authentic, hence their popularity in virtual worlds!

B ~Blogosphere
An umbrella term used to describe all blogs and their interconnections and conversations.

C ~ Captcha
Often used on blogs and other sites that allow you to leave comments, a captcha is a tool or puzzle that’s used to check whether someone’s human. It stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”.

D ~ Digital Story
A short, first person video-narrative created by combining recorded voice, still and moving images, and music or other sounds. The great thing about digital stories is that anyone can make ’em … online democracy in action again!

E ~ eBook
Forget facebook, it’s all about eBooks these days. Kindle, Sony Readers, the iRex iLiad, CyBooks, Nooks & iPads. Who needs paper?

F ~ FollowFriday ~ #ff
A Twitter trend in which users big up fellow users and recommend them to others. A great way to end the week too!

G ~ Geotagging
The process of adding location-based data to photos, videos, maps etc. Great for sharing, organising – and bragging!

H ~ Hat Tip
Just like days of old when true gents tipped their hats to true ladies, this is a public nod from one blogger to another.

I ~ Instant Messaging
IM consists of sending real time messages to another internet user. Great for speedy, private chats…

J ~ Joining Up
With so many blogs, feeds, forums, networks and groups all over the shop – how on earth do we join everything up?

K ~ Klog
Short for knowledge blog, klogs often work as knowledge management systems and are not usually accessible to the general public.

L ~ Linkbait
Just read something shocking, funny or astounding with a link following it? Chances are it was linkbait – sensational content posted on a blog or website to bait readers and cause them to link to it… What would bait you?
M ~ Mashup
Forget the bangers and gravy – mashups are the clever mixes that techies do to create fab new web services. We like.

N ~ Niche Blog
Targeting particular, specific markets, niche blogs are everywhere. Some make sense, some seem downright crazy – and others are just marketing disguised as niche.

O ~ Open
Being open is fundamental to social media. Open platforms, open sources, open videos, open media … sharing and collaborating is the key here. Open up!

P ~ Permalink
We’re not talking about the latest curly hair-do, we’re talking handy links & addresses to specific content or posts.

Q ~ Quality
Not quantity. It’s all about having something worthwhile to tweet, update, digg or upload. No quality? No point.

R ~ RSS
Short for Really Simple Syndication, RSS feeds allow you to subscribe to content on blogs and the like and have the content brought straight to you. The blog equivalent of having hot pizza delivered to your door. Sweeeeeet.

S ~ Splogs
Short for Spam Blogs, splogs are created by unscrupulous souls. These fake blogs are chock full of links and scraped content in order to boost search engine rankings. Crap, but cunning.

T ~ Troll
A troll is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, hurtful or downright rude comments on blogs and forums etc. Down with trolls!

U ~ UGC
Standing for User Generated Content, UGC refers to all the personal web stuff that is user created; such as blog posts, podcasts, reviews, videos, comments etc. Wanna add some UGC to this blog post? Comment away, baby!

V ~ Virtual World
Online places such as Second Life integrate aspects of real life with fantasy elements. In these worlds you can create your avatar, socialise, trade and learn. You can also be anyone you want to be: In a virtual world, we’re all successful, sexy, clever and popular!

W ~ Webinar
A webinar is a presentation, lecture, seminar or workshop transmitted online. It’s also an anagram of A New Rib. How about that.

X ~ X Factor
Not the TV show, but that rare quality that makes a blogger stand out, or a tweet worth retweeting. Hard to define, but it doesn’t stop a thousand social media marketing books trying every year…

Y ~ Yelp
Combining user-review, local search & networking, Yelp provides info about local businesses. It’s also a great sound. Yelp, Yelp!

Z ~ Zimbio
On Zimbio, users build interactive blogs or wikizines (interactive online mags that anyone can create or edit) on whatever topic they fancy, merging traditional media and citizen journalism.