What Is a Blog?

• A blog is a type of website that maintains a list of information in chronological order. It can be very specific with its content. From cats to politics to religion, the blog has a wide range of information that is posted and kept track of in a diary form for readers specifically interested in that topic. It also has an archive where readers can look at a backlist of articles that have been written.
  
  

Comments

• One of the main differences between a website and a blog is the ability for readers to engage on the topic of a post by the use of comments. Below each article is a place where the reader can leave a comment about the article they're reading, if they choose. This can be a platform for some lively (and sometimes heated) discussion or lead to other helpful information related to the topic as some readers put links in their comments they feel are pertinent.
  
  

Trackbacks

• Developed by SixApart, the company responsible for the Moveable Type and Typepad blog formats, trackbacks was a method that notified an author that her article had been referenced in someone else's blog post. The trackback notification comes back as comment under the article in question in a small excerpt, which is a sample of what the whole article is about.
  
  The main problem with trackbacks is verification. In many cases, they can be faked, primarily because the trackback can be edited by the original author in the comments on his blog though they cannot edit the post that the trackback references.
  
  

Pingbacks

• In response to trackbacks, pingbacks were developed. Though the goal of the trackback and pingback are identical, the pingback has some marked differences.
  
  First, pingbacks use very different communication technologies. Second, pingbacks send a link only and do not send any content like trackbacks. The pingback then verifies the post from the linking author, making it more difficult to fake a pingback. Third, pingbacks can only be used between blogs that have it enabled.