A feature of the [blogging] software [Movable Type]. When popular [weblog|blogger]s make an interesting post it is likely to be linked to and discussed elsewhere in the [blogosphere]. The 'trackback' link leads to a page showing links to these posts and portions of their content.

A bit like e2's [softlink]s, this is a useful mechanism for finding out 'how did everyone get here?'. It's an indicator of one's [blogspace] neighbourhood (see also [blogroll]). The feature works better than simple [HTTP] '[referer]' links ([backlink]s/[linkback]s) for following [conversation]s, because it explicitly keeps track of both the two posts. Also, it doesn't rely on anyone actually [click]ing the link to set up the entry. However, it means that the linking blogger must send a [trackback ping] for each link they want to be trackable.

TrackBack (thing)