• Automating *back (either one) requires harvesting links from your blog
• Automating *back requires retrieving the target pages
• Trackback records metadata in only one type of format.  Parsers must look for the two different formats in which pingback metadata information is recorded.
• Trackback allows one to record metadata for multiple blog entries in a single web page.  Pingback only allows you to record one.  The compensating advantage that this provides to pingback is that it allows you to have pingbacks for non-textual formats.
• Trackback pings have title and excerpt information.  Pingback's lack of this information, coupled with the support for non-textual information reduces most pingbacks to simple (e.g., [1 2 3]) displays.  Compare the differences for yourself with the two links above.
• Trackbacks are done with HTTP GET or POST.  Pingbacks are done with XML RPC.  I was able to integrate the former directly into blosxom.  The latter will likely require a separate package to be installed.

Overall, I'm not sure that I find the compromises required to support binary data formats compelling enough to justify the compromises made.

  7:09:31 AM   Comment 

Simon Fell: It seems like a test suite with documented outcomes would help the tools guys move forward.  There should be two test suites.

Good RSS producers put the category element in the default namespace.

Good RSS consumers accept namespace prefixed category elements.

These two statements are not incompatible.  Both assertions are testable.  Having both consumers and producers attempt to meet each other more than half way is the path forward.

  6:33:51 AM   Comment