Trackback
When trackback (reference) is a function is called, with the blogs information on back links in the form of reactions or comments by an automatic alert can exchange with each other.
functionality
The trackback function was initially developed by Six Apart for the Movable Type blog software . It enables bloggers to determine if their own entry is being referenced on another blog. For this purpose, data are exchanged between the blogs involved according to a fixed protocol , which establish the relationship between the relevant entries.
It has become common practice that trackbacks are only sent if the referring article also contains a link to the original article. A minority of bloggers also exchange trackbacks with each other when there is only a contextual connection in order to strengthen the links in the blogosphere .
Depending on the blog software used, it may be necessary to manually enter the trackback URL of the blog / entry that is being referred to when creating a blog entry. More comfortable programs do this themselves or offer automatic trackback detection ( Trackback Auto Discovery ).
In scientific specialist literature , trackback could be thought of as a source of information that is automatically notified of citations in other sources or in secondary literature .
Incoming trackback messages (short: trackbacks ) are usually displayed at the end of the respective blog entry or together with the associated comments. They contain the name of the linked blog, the corresponding URL and a summary of the entry from which reference was made to the current blog entry.
In addition to Movable Type's trackback specification, there is a slightly different pingback that pursues the same goal. There, however, before publication, the web server of the linked source checks whether the specified trackback sender actually exists.
Web links
- Software Guide: What are Trackbacks? - Explanation of trackbacks in broadcast-with-the-mouse style
- Whitepaper: Pingback vs Trackback (English)