molly.com
Thursday 27 January 2005
articulating trackback
I’M BACK FROM the Blog Business Summit, which was a very interesting event for numerous reasons. I’m going to be blogging more about the event over the next week or so, as many great topics were discussed and debated. Today’s topic is about the challenge of articulating trackback technologies.
During one of my sessions, a person asked me to describe the way trackback works. I answered the best I could, but it was clear that many people have a difficult time understanding what is really a simple process. Standing in the lunch line talking about this challenge, Anil Dash piped up that it took him nearly three years to effectively articulate the way trackback actually works. Of course, this gave me some comfort, but I’m still looking for better ways to quickly and effectively describe trackback. So have at it, folks – let’s hear how you feel trackback is best described.
Filed under: blogging
Posted by: Molly | 12:36 | Comments (26)
And don’t forget its open-standard and completely automatic counterpart, Pingback.
Cut out the sentence around ‘Anil Dash’ and give it to her with the URL of this page so she can put it at the bottom of her page.
This will allow her readers to see what other people are writing about that relates to her page.
[ok, not quite technically correct; but I think easy enough to understand]
eek I can’t read; replace *her* with *him* … [sorry]
Technically? I don’t know.
Conceptually? Here’s my take (but I’m a newbie):
TrackBack is a protocol which notifies the source blog that a second blog has quoted the source blog and given them credit. The source blog may then display the second blog’s comments about the original entry as it would display reader comments.
How about this: trackback is a simple, automated way for blogger A to reference blogger B’s post, and to notify blogger B of the reference.
When you link to a site, trackback can automatically notify the site about your link, and that site can automatically give you a link back if the feature is enabled.
I dunno, that’s the best I can do. And trackback isn’t necessarily automatic so it’s wrong. Oh well.
It simulates a “Hey! I’m talking about something you wrote”. Not very elegant, but if you are trying to explain it to a newbie, it just might work.
simply put:
a trackback is another article that references your article.
on the more detailed side of things, your article was pinged, it shows up in your list of trackbacks, and (hopefully) it’s related to your article.
Trackback is a humpback with a track record.
Trackback is slang for a heroin junkie who shoots up between vertebrae.
Trackback is what’s left when you wipe backwards.
OK, seriously, I like all the definitions, although Mojo’s is short, colloquial and sweet.
I think all the options
Well, the explanation that got it to finally sink in for me came from Anna Aven at deep soil:
Fantastic webpage! hi
all
Hey I was trying to figure out trackbacks myself, and this post helped explain it! But one problem…there is no trackback area for the post! :p
Boot Yacht Online
Interesting. I went to that very same summit, though the odds of us running into each other were a million to one with all those people there.
Jess
I dunno, that’s the best I can do. And trackback isn’t necessarily automatic so it’s wrong
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