One of the hardest things for me to learn has been the new language that I call "geek speak".
I thought it might help some of the newer bloggers to have some translation, and perhaps some of you veterans can add a few more that I forgot. I find that geek speak is more ingrained in veterans, which is why I, a relative newbie myself, think that perhaps I can help others understand what this crazy language means. I certainly am no expert, and these definitions are in my own words, trying to keep it as simple as possible. If I have over-simplified or am incorrect, I am sure others will explain better than I, in the comments below.
So here are a few definitions for you to get started:
I am assuming you already know what "blog" means, but just in case you don't,...it is short for Web Log, which started as a kind of on-line diary or journal and has morphed into what we have here today.
Search Engine The big three are Google, Yahoo and MSN. Others are Live, Ask, Dogpile and Altavista. More people seem to be concerned with ranking high in Google because it is currently the largest search engine, and also the hardest to get good rankings from.
SEO Search Engine Optimization. A method of enhancing your website or blog to make it search engine friendly. It is a means to make your site show up higher in the search results when someone is looking for a specific term. This method, done properly, helps you show up higher in Organic (or naturally ocurring) results.
SERP Search Engine Results Page If you search for something on Google, Yahoo or MSN, this is the page that comes up with all the results for your search. Across the top and down one side with be the paid links (PPC, see below) and the rest will be the Organic results, which is where we are striving to be with our SEO.
Black hat SEO Tricky or spammy methods that fool the search engines and may work for a while until they figure it out and either ban you or put you in the sandbox. If you are sandboxed, many of your pages will not be indexed by google and you will be practically invisible to everyone. Link farms, which usually are paid services that claim to bring you higher rankings by linking you to lots of people you have never heard of, are usually considered Black Hat. Invisible text on your page is considered spammy and is not welcomed. It is made invisible by having the words the same color as the background, so you can't see it but search engines can. However the search engines can now recognize it for the spam it is and penalize you for it. 
White hat SEO The proper and "google approved" use of the important words on your site. Otherwise known as keywords and meta tags. If you are selling real estate, that is probably one of your keywords. If you are in Colorado, that would be another. You want to be cautious with using the keywords on each page just the right amount of times (3 or 4 maybe?) If you use the same words over and over it is considered spam. However, words on your page should be matches for words in your titles, which are usually keywords. Links are important and must be real and relevant to your website category. Reciprocal links are not necessarily helpful, according to most people, and it is better to get people linking to you without your having to link back to them in return.
Page rank. A grading system by Google that tells you how important they think the page is. The grading system is based on the content of the page and the links coming into it from other pages. You can find out your page rank by downloading the Google Toolbar and finding the button under "options"
Pay per click or PPC A way to buy your way to the top of the Search Engine Results Page. You bid on certain words and the highest bidder wins. If you want "Los Angeles California real estate", you can get it, but it will cost you a lot of money every time anyone clicks on it. A less expensive way would be to buy words that are used less often, but have less competition. Perhaps "home in LA"? I am not in LA and haven't researched it, so these are guesses, but hopefully you get the idea!
Podcast recorded audio clip that can be downloaded from your site or just listened to by clicking on a link to it. It can be used as narration on a slide show, or could be longer, in a story form or possibly an interview.
Wiki Software that allows an encylopedia on the internet to be developed by a group of users. Probably the best known is Wikipedia, and I have used it here for many definitions.
RSS feed A method of having information "pushed" to you, versus "pulled" by you. You can set up an RSS feed easily using Google feed reader. You tell it which blogs you want to subscribe to, and any time there is new content, the RSS feed brings it to your Google account. Alternatively, you can set up an RSS feed on many blogs (not AR yet) so that your new content is sent out to people who have subscribed to it. There are many names for these types of accounts, like Feedburner, Newsgator, and often you will see the little icons on the pages.
Widget Now there really are widget factories. Widgets are the names for all the little gadgets and icons that you see in a lot of the sidebars on AR. You get them by going to the website that creates them, and copying and pasting the html code for the widget into your blog description box.
Hyperlink The underlined "live" link that you can click on to go to the page described in the link. It might be a web address you are clicking on, or it might be anchor text, which will take you to the page that has to do with the word you clicked on.
Blogroll The list of links to other blogs in the sidebar of your blog. They are usually friends or other blogs whose views you respect enough to link to them.
Avatar or Avy The photo or symbol by which you are known on the internet. Traditional photos like the ones that we use as Realtors are considered a bit old fashioned. The animated person getting ready to take a hike in my sidebar is also an Avatar.
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