Web Cash

A trackback is usually explained this way - it’s a citation style and system for blogs and its a form of remote commenting.

When you fully grasp what a trackback is, this kind of make sense. But it doesn’t do much to help the novice understand the idea.

We’ll use an example to illustrate the remote commenting idea.

I’m the author of a weblog - Web Cash. Let’s say that you’re the author of your own weblog - Brand Me.

While I’m browsing the internet, I stumble upon your blog - Brand Me. I read a few entries and think, “Wow… this is great stuff!” Now I could simply leave a comment on one of your entries to let you know how much I love your writing.

Or, I could go back to Web Cash and write a post about this great new blog that I found. The problem is - I need to let you know that I’ve written about your blog. That’s where the trackback comes in.

While I’m writing my entry, I initiate a trackback to an entry on your blog. When I publish my entry, my server sends a ping to your server.

The data is specially coded so that you server knows what to do with it - and your server makes a comment in the comments of the post that I targeted, with a link back to my post and a brief excerpt of what I wrote.

Now, you are alerted about the trackback and your readers will see that I wrote about you on my own blog. That helps establish a connection between our websites - I’m letting people know about your website, and your readers might just come check out mine on the basis of the trackback.

So, the trackback is essentially a way for me to create a link on your blog - telling everyone that I’m writing about your blog.

Head back to the general Trackback Guide, or read about how to send a trackback.