WordPress, Trackbacks and Pingbacks…

According to the Wikipedia, Pingback is a method for Web authors to request notification when somebody links to one of their documents. This enables authors to keep track of who is linking to, or referring to their articles. Some weblog software, such as WordPress, support automatic pingbacks where all the links in a published article can be pinged when the article is published. The sites are pinged and are made aware of the links.

Now a TrackBack is virtually the same as a Pingback, i.e is a mechanism for communication between blogs: However, if a blogger writes a new entry commenting on, or referring to, an entry found at another TrackBack supporting blog, then the commenting blogger can notify the other blog with a “TrackBack ping”; the receiving blog will typically display summaries of, and links to, all the comments entries below the original entry (usually displayed as a Comment).

Make sense? No? Well here’s an excellent summary on TrackBacks in Wordpress:

“…Basically, they both allow you to notify other blogs that your post is related to one of theirs. The other blog, if it has trackbacks or pingbacks enabled, will then add a link to your article below their post. Say, for example, you post an article about ducks on your Wordpress blog. You find another blog that has a similar article on ducks and would like them to link back to you. Take their trackback uri (usually available below the post) and place it in the TrackBack a URI blank below your article on the Write Post screen in Wordpress Admin. The other blog will recieve this trackback and (if enabled) will place a link to your article below their article complete with a short excerpt from yours.

To use pingbacks, check allow pings and place links to other articles in your post. Wordpress will scan the post and ping the other links. Those links that have pingbacks enabled will add a simple link to your site below the post you have linked to on their site. Pingbacks are considered more secure than trackbacks as they automatically verify the existance of the pinging site…”

So what should happen is, once this article is posted, the corresponding blogs should recieve TrackBack messages saved as Comments.

For those of you that are interested in the background, the TrackBack specification was created by Six Apart who first implemented it in its Movable Type blogging software in 2002. It has since been implemented in most other blogging tools. Six Apart started a working group in February 2006 to improve the Trackback protocol and have it potentially approved as an internet standard by the IETF. One notable blogging tool that does not support trackback yet is Blogger.

For more Information on TrackBack, visit Six Apart here for a beginners guide.
Another very detailed article on WordPress TrackBacks is located here on the Optiniche.com blog

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