Interblog

Interblog is an open standard and ecosystem designed to interconnect independent blogs into a federated network. It aims to enable cross-site publishing, content discovery, and syndicated presentation while preserving authors’ control over their original hosting. Under Interblog, a post published on one host can be syndicated to other participating hosts, with metadata such as title, date, tags, excerpts, and author credits exchanged through a defined API.

The architecture of Interblog centers on a federated model in which participating hosts run compliant nodes. Each host maintains a local index of posts and exposes content through REST-like endpoints or feeds. Discovery is achieved via feed exchange, with optional support for activity-like events. The protocol emphasizes content portability; posts retain canonical URLs and are linked with provenance data to support attribution and versioning. Interblog is designed to be compatible with existing web standards, including RSS and Atom for syndication, and uses structured data to provide rich previews.

Key features include cross-host posting and updates, optional cross-host commenting and reactions, and the ability to preserve or proxy moderation while respecting reader privacy settings. Media is referenced via content-addressable URLs, and hosts may implement cross-host moderation or redirect readers to the origin for governance of discussions. Security and trust mechanisms, such as cryptographic signing and authenticated feeds, are proposed to verify authorship and prevent tampering, along with abuse controls and rate limiting.

Interblog was proposed in the 2020s by a coalition of blogging communities. A draft specification and sample implementations exist, but adoption remains limited and experimental. Critics note potential fragmentation, while proponents view Interblog as a way to reduce platform lock-in and increase resilience. See also web federations, RSS, Atom, and blog syndication.