In 2002, Ben and Mena Trott had an idea for how blogging systems could communicate with one another more effectively about the plethora of content being created. They dubbed the idea "TrackBack" and they implemented it in Movable Type. What followed surprised everyone, the idea and technology they created spread like wildfire. Now, several years later, TrackBack is in use by over 50 million blogs and news sites across the Internet.
As many familiar with the protocol will attest, TrackBack, despite its wide market adoption, is far from perfect -- largely due to the fact that TrackBack was invented for a blogosphere that was much different in size and makeup. Today, blogging has exploded in popularity, presenting TrackBack with a whole new set of challenges to address. Specifically, those challenges include the need for:
- Standardization
- Protocol Extensibility
- Authentication
- Better documentation
Since TrackBack was invented, little has been done to secure TrackBack to prevent people from abusing it and generating unsolicited, unwanted, and ultimately irrelevant "TrackBack Spam." Managing unwanted TrackBacks takes time away from bloggers and blog hosting services that could be better spent elsewhere.
Also, over the years, a number of protocols have emerged to service roughly the same set of problems as TrackBacks -- to inform resources and services on the Internet of the availability of new content. TrackBack and "update pings" have a lot in common, and the industry could benefit a great deal by simplifying and potentially merging them into a single and cohesive standard.
Finally, Six Apart has engaged many companies wishing to extend the TrackBack protocol in some way, a proposition that Six Apart is excited about and encourages. However, no one company should ever be a constraint on anyone's desire to innovate and deliver new and interesting technologies to the blogging world. Extension of the protocol should be simple, logical, and enabled by the protocol itself.
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