I'm not really clear on what is the difference between pingback and trackback. Also, I made a post on my blog and referenced a post on another website. I didn't notify the other website about my post in any manner, yet today, on the other site, at the bottom is a list of pingbacks, one of which is mine. I'm just wondering how that would have happened? Thank you
Hi, I guess these two words describe the same thing from two different points of view. When you link to some blog post, you can ping it back to let it know that you've mentioned it - this is ping back. The original blog post can track who links to it and display the inbound links as trackbacks. WordPress blogs automatically try to ping back all links found in new blog posts. Other blogs, probably, do it as well. That's why you found a link to your blog in the other blog's comments/trackback section.
Thanks for the explanation. I know when you write a post, there is an option to send a trackback and I see it says below it that it will automatically send a pingback. Not that I'd want to as it is a link back, but just for my own understanding, is there a way to disable this feature if I wanted to?
I didn't try to disable pingbacks myself. Check the "Settings/Discussion" page of the admin interface. There are options like: Attempt to notify any blogs linked to from the article (slows down posting) - If you check this box, WordPress will send out a ping to a site or article you have linked to in your post. Your mention of their site or article will show up in the comment section of their site, if that site allows pingbacks. The notfication occurs during the process of publishing your article to the internet. An article with many hyperlinks will slow the posting process as WordPress contacts all of the sites before the post is published. Allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks) - Check this box so WordPress to accepts or declines the pings from other sites which may reference your site or an article on your site. If this box is checked, pingbacks and trackbacks will appear in the comments section of your posts. http://codex.wordpress.org/Discussion_Options