The comments are some of the most exhilarating features of the tools of blogging. It is a very interactive feature that allows the users to remark on the article posts and links to ones posts and state their mind and recommend them. They are identified as trackbacks and pingbacks.
Trackbacks
Track backs were developed originally by six apart who are the creators of the blog package that is of the movable type. Six apart has an excellent foreword to trackbacks. TrackBack was intended to make available a means of notification between different websites: it is a process of Ann saying to mike. To do so, Ann sends a TrackBack ping to Mike. A simpler explanation is;
• Ann writes something on her blog.
• Mike wants to leave a comment on Ann’s blog, but he wants the readers of his blog to see what he had to comment on the blog, and be capable of commenting on his own blog
• Mike posts on his own blog and then sends Ann a trackback to her blog
• Ann blog gets the trackback, and shows it as a comment of the post that was put originally. The comment usually contain a link to mikes’ post
The basic idea is that many people are enjoined to the ongoing conversation. This is so because both mike’s and Ann’s’ readers are able to follow the links to the other persons post. There is also a height of authenticity to the comments trackback for the reason that they were from another weblog.
It is unfortunate that there is no verification performed really on the trackbacks that are incoming and without a doubt they can be faked.
Most trackbacks usually send to ‘Ann’ only an ‘excerpt’ which is a small portion of what ‘Mike’ had to say. This is intended to tease ‘Ann’ and her readers see a little of what ‘Mike’ had to say, and thereby cheering them all to connect over to Mike’s site to read the details of the excerpt and maybe even comment.
Mike’s trackback to ‘Ann’s’ blog are usually posted alongside the rest of the comments. This therefore means that ‘Ann’ can be able to edit the posts in the trackback on her own server, which means then translates to the problem of authenticity. It is also good to note that ‘Ann’ is only able to edit contents of a certain trackback on her site only.
Pingbacks
The reason why ping backs were designed was to help solve the troubles that people experienced with trackbacks
If for example, Ann writes an article that is interesting on her Web log. Mike reads Ann’s article and gives his comments concerning it, linking them back to Ann’s original post. Using pingback, Mike’s software is capable of automatically notifying Ann that Mike has linked her post, Ann’s software can subsequently include that information in her site. The major differences between trackbacks and pingbacks are.
1. Pingbacks use XML-RPC communication technology while trackbacks use HTTP POST, communication technology which is drastically different.
2. Pingbacks unlike trackbacks do not send content at all.
The pingback is usually displayed on Ann’s blog as only a link to Mike’s post. This way, all the power to edit the posts is exclusively the preserve of the individual authors this is different from the excerpt of the trackback, which may be edited by the recipient of the trackback. This brings forth a certain level of authenticity. It makes it somehow hard to forge a pingback. Trackbacks may seem superior to some readers because the readers of Ann’s blog can see little details of what Mike has to say and make a decision if they would like to read more.