Trackbacks, anyone?

    I have been blogging now for a little over a year.   I have learned a lot about various blog engines, photo blogging, and a little CSS and HTML along the way.  If you know me at all, you know that there are certain details that I notice, but I file away pretty quickly in the 'I don't have time for this now' section of my brain.  The way I figure it, I need that valuable brain real estate* for more urgent, need-to-know-now, data, like, for example, what am I going to do with this leftover chicken, or how am I going to get this silly putty out my hair.   TrackBack went in there right along with 'wiki' and 'permalink ' (I finally did figure that one out...pretty handy).   So, me being me, I am perturbed at times when I see the TrackBacks link at the bottom of my posts and I don't know what they are for.   

    In the interest of not feeling like a rube, and also, because I have nothing better to do at the moment, I have decided to research this term and discover it's meaning and purpose. 

    Well, it turns out that TrackBacks are a way of notifying another blog when you use their material. TrackBacks are typically sent from one weblog to another when one publishes a post referencing the other weblog entry.   For example, if I write about something at Angelarae Knits that I saw on your blog, I would use the TrackBack URL from your post, and include that with my post at my blog.  'My weblogging tool will notify yours to inform you of that. Your weblog will then display the excerpt of the post that I made, with a link back to the post on my site.   This allows visitors to your site (and you) to know what others are saying about your post' and it directs relevant traffic to my site.   Of course, it goes without saying that both blog engines must allow TrackBacks for this to work.  That also means that publications like online newsletters and other media won't have TrackBack capability, only weblogs.

"So, trackbacks allow for conversations spanning several blogs, that readers can easily follow. Although TrackBack's most prevalent use thus far has been as a form of remote commenting, a more exciting use has been emerging: using TrackBack to aggregate content into topic-based repositories."
                                                                                                    Typepad Knowledge Base

I have tested this process.  I copied the TrackBack url at my Wordpress blog entry, 'Lovely, Lovely Yarn.' (http://angelarae.wordpress.com/2007/01/14/lovelylovely-yarn/trackback/) and sent it with this very post.  Typepad pinged the Wordpress trackback url, and if you go here, you can see the TrackBack and a snippet from this post.  I also received an email from Wordpress, shortly thereafter,  notifying me of the new TrackBack.   I can go directly to this Typepad entry and read what has been written about my Wordpress post.  Commenters to my Wordpress blog can do the same. 

How To Use TrackBacks:

When you send a TrackBack ping, a link to your post and an excerpt of the post is displayed in the TrackBack section of the receiving site. This directs readers to visit your site to read more. 
Here are some how-to links:

For Typepad Users
For Wordpress Users
For Blogger

I referenced Wikipedia, Typepad Knowledge Base, Blogger Help, and Wordpress FAQ for this-here, little article.  I hope that it helps.  Brain real estate can be so hard to find these days;->

*Brain Real Estate:  That section of the brain that is open to new information...part of the brain not already crowded with too much information or overlapping data.

Comments

[Dipsy D.]

Ah, great - thanks so much for this thorough explanation! To be honest, I never had a clue what this really is and how it works - I think I have Trackback on my blog too, but that's because CM installed it and the fact that I have it doesn't mean that I know what it is, LOL ;) Now it's clear, absolutely clear to me - thanks to you!

[KaKi McKinney]

You are so smart! I am way impressed!

[hakucho]

Thanks a bunch for your sharing your research! :)

[Monica]

Wow! I too, often wondered what that was. I just have my 13 year old son do all my computer stuff, I am clueless

[AuntieAnn]

Good job looking this up and writing it up! I had no idea.

[Maia]

Thank you for this write up. I will have to try it . The only trackbacks I've gotten have been spam.

[Laura Walker]

Hey there!

This is laura from Knit list. Like you, I'm becoming familiar with blogging and HTML. I had a blogger address but didn't really find it Laura friendly so I got a typepad account. Whenever I try to make my own profile though, things get chopped off our I end up with a 3.5 inch boder on both sides. Is there anyway you can help me??

Thanks
Laura

[angelarae]

I'd be glad to help:) Please email me and I'll see if I can. I'm not the typepad guru by any stretch, but maybe I can at least point you in the right direction. I tried to look at your profile so I could email you, but there's no link at all. Nice picture of you, though:)

Ang