What does blogroll mean?
A blogroll is a curated list of hyperlinks, conventionally placed in the sidebar of a blog, directing visitors to other blogs the author enjoys or endorses. The term blends 'blog' with 'roll', an older English word for a list or register. Emerging alongside blogging culture in the early 2000s, the blogroll served both as a public reading recommendation and as an informal network: bloggers linked to one another, building communities of mutual visibility. A place on someone's blogroll was often read as a sign of respect or friendship within the blogging world. Though social media has largely displaced this form of link-sharing and many modern blog designs omit it entirely, the word persists among bloggers, web historians, and readers of long-running personal sites. It carries a mildly nostalgic connotation today, evoking an earlier, more interconnected era of the independent web, and remains instantly recognizable to anyone familiar with classic blog layouts.
nounA list of hyperlinks, typically displayed in the sidebar of a blog, pointing to other blogs that the author reads or recommends.
- A list of recommended links to other blogs, usually shown in a blog's sidebar.
"She updated her blogroll to include the new science writers she'd discovered."
"Her blogroll reads like a who's-who of independent food writing."
"After the redesign, he trimmed his blogroll down to a dozen trusted favourites."
Standard regular plural; used when referring to the link lists of multiple blogs or several such lists.
"Cross-linking between blogrolls helped small sites grow their audiences in the early 2000s."
The word 'blog' itself was coined by shortening 'weblog', and 'blogroll' simply rolls that word together with the old-fashioned sense of a roll — a list.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of blogroll
Blogroll is a compound of 'blog' — itself a 1990s clipping of 'weblog' — and 'roll', used since at least the Middle Ages to mean a list or register, from the practice of keeping records on rolled parchment. The term arose in early-2000s blogging culture when listing favourite blogs in a sidebar became widespread. It shares its first element with related coinages such as 'vlog' and its second element with older list-based terms like 'payroll'.
How blogroll is actually used
The term belongs to internet and blogging culture and is informal-to-neutral in register. Its use has declined since the late 2000s as blogs shifted toward social media sharing, but it remains standard vocabulary among bloggers and readers of older-style personal websites.
Easily confused with blogroll
A weblog is an individual online journal; a blogroll is a list of links to multiple such weblogs displayed on one blog.