Greetings colleagues, clients, friends, fellow networkers... and welcome to the inaugural edition of the Official Zoonini Web Services Email Newsletter, aka ZooNews, featuring Web tips, observations and news! I invite your feedback on this issue, so do feel free to email me, use the contact form on my Web site, or even send me an old-fashioned letter.

Podcasting. VoIP. Spyware. Adware. CMS. Do you sometimes feel incapable of keeping up with the swelling lexicon of technology lingo? This column seeks to demystify GeekSpeak... one piece of jargon at a time.

Blog. Even if you're not quite sure what this means, you've probably heard the term bandied about by everyone from newscasters to your teenager. Short for Weblog, a blog is often described as a kind of Web journal or online chronicle where visitors can usually post comments in response to what they read.

In practical terms, a blog allows people to post their news updates, thoughtful musings – or raw, unedited rants, as the case may be – on a Web site, as often as they like, without needing any special Web design or file-transfer software.

As long as bloggers (blogger – noun, one who has a blog) can access the Web, they can update to their heart's content. This is usually done by logging into a password-protected area of their Web site, but on-the-go bloggers can even post updates via cell phone, Blackberry, or other mobile devices. This form of blogging is called moblogging, short for mobile blogging.

Almost everyone seems to have a blog these days – from campaigning politicians to corporations to that sub-genre of "bloggers-famous-for-being-fired-for-blogging" who now have a verb named after them.

"Hey, that's so cool, I want a blog too!" If you have your own Web site, there are several good blog software packages – many of them free – that can be installed directly on your Web server. If you're site-less but still have the overwhelming urge to blog, you can still take part in the blog revolution. Blogger is a good place to start. Happy Blogging!

Got a term you'd like explained? A Web-related question of any kind? Submit it to questions@zoonini.com and I'll try to answer it in an upcoming issue.

I'm pleased to have launched two sites recently that couldn't be more different from each other.

Tukto Lodge was in need of a total remake to better showcase its amazing arctic scenery and trophy fishing opportunities. Working with search-engine optimization specialist A.C. Riley, we completely overhauled this site from the ground up and the results are spectacular.

Ever wondered where you could get your hands on some 2-nitro-5-phenoxybenzoic acid for medicinal R&D purposes? Just open an account at Elkimia and place your order online! We completely customized the look of a standard shopping cart system to match the corporate identity of this Laval-based provider of chemical compounds.

Don't lose that domain name! So you've made the leap and registered a domain name for a site you intend to get off the ground one day, or you've had your own domain name for a few years and your site is doing well. Don't forget that your domain name must be renewed before it expires, or you risk losing it! This is no scare tactic or urban myth – legions of domain "brokers" (I call them opportunistic scumbags) do lie in wait, ready to snatch up domain names the minute they expire. Of course, they're very happy to sell yours back to you at a hefty premium once you realize you've lost it!

Don't take the chance. Be on the lookout for a renewal notice email from your domain registrar a few months before your domain expires. If you have a spam filter, check to ensure that this important message gets through. As an added precaution, mark your domain name renewal date in your calendar 90 days before its expiry and renew it early. You can also renew for more than a year at a time, or set your name to "auto-renew" at your domain registry.

If you're as hooked on email as I am, you may be equally as astonished to hear that a recent study showed that a constant barrage of email, text messages and other technological distractions reduce one's IQ and concentration skills more than pot-smoking. Something to think about the next time I hit "receive mail" for the hundredth time.

À la prochaine,

kp
aka Kathryn Presner