A blogroll is a collection of links to other weblogs. When present, blogrolls are often found on the front page of most weblogs. A weblog (now more commonly known as a blog) is a web-based publication consisting primarily of periodic articles (normally, but not always, in reverse chronological order). ...

Various weblog authors have different criteria for including other weblogs on their blogrolls. These range from matters of common interest to frequency of updates and posts to country/geographical/communal relations to link exchange policies. Some blogrolls also simply consist of the list of weblogs an author reads himself, and some news aggregators allow their users to export that list directly to a weblog. Link Exchange (Reciprocal Link Exchange) is the practice of exchanging links with other websites. ... A news aggregator, or simply aggregator, is a software application, webpage or service that collects syndicated content, such as RSS and other XML feeds from weblogs and mainstream media sites. ...

With the advent of syndicated newsfeeds, even blogrolls can be, and are being, syndicated. OPML is one of the popular ways to syndicate a blogroll in case a weblog author wants others to be able to access the weblogs in his/her blogroll. Jump to: navigation, search Web syndication is a form of syndication in which a section of a website is made available for other sites to use. ... Jump to: navigation, search OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language) is an XML format for outlines. ...

The are two possible derivations of the term. US bloggers tend to prefer the theory that the term is derived from logrolling, wherein members of a community liberally "cross-quote" each other's works. To UK bloggers 'blogroll' sounds like 'bog roll' - a slang term for toilet tissue - leading to speculation that the name derived from the long, list-like nature (and dubious quality) of some inter-blog link lists. Logrolling is a colorful phrase used to describe trading of votes by legislative members to obtain passage of actions of interest to each legislative member. ...