David,

Looks like I get to play the Luddite again... Can we get a "Trackbacks for Dummies" quick intro? Or a link to one? All the pinging and ponging to send Trackbacks is rocket science to some of us. (I don't want to tell you how long it took for me to learn to get my own Tracbacks not to backtrack!)

Yes, IAOC is a technologically sophisticated audience, but I don't think we should take anything for granted.

Am I wrong? Am I insulting our members? What do you think?

Thanks,
Morty

Correct me if I'm wrong, but a "trackback" is a link *from* an article, *to* another article that references the first article. Pinging and ponging, indeed.

We have had to disable trackbacks here at IAOCblog due to -- you guessed it -- "Trackback Spam." That is, people inserting bogus trackbacks in an attempt to increase the number of inbound links to their sites (thus improving Google rank).

David, do you think Trackback Spam could limit the value of trackbacks in news releases?

STEVE O'KEEFE

Steve,

When we implemented trackbacks we were very concerned about the possibility of trackback spam. It is a good thing because sure enough it happened. To date we have blocked close to half a million spam attempts using filters that we have built and refined in house as part of our solution. Further to the technology filter we actually have a human editor reviewing each trackback that makes it throug the filter to eliminate anything spammy.

We hope to be doing a good job.

See you at the top.

-- David

Sorry for the delayed response to this very interesting thread. I am in Brussels for IAOC's first European conference, which starts Thursday. I've had some difficulty getting online (firewall issues); so it's been a little harder than usual keeping up with email and blogs. To elaborate on Steve's comment about IAOC's experience with trackbacks, comments and spam: we have not yet turned off trackbacks. Our blog service holds suspected spam trackbacks in moderation to be approved or deleted and blocked. The spam filter isn't perfect. It lets through some obvious spam, and blocks others that are not. But it is right perhaps 90 percent of the time.

Steve and I communicated about trackback spam late last week and he suggested just turning it off. Considering the ratio of spam to legitimate is so high, I was inclined to so so upon my return from Brussels. Following this discussion, however, I'll leave it on for now and deal with the spam.

We once got a lot of comment spam, which is why we don't permit links from comments. The new eye-test comment verification system has cut down the spam, but it also has made it harder for legitimate comments. It is a mystery to me how the spammers make any money. Who is still dumb enough to buy insurance, stocks, get a home loan, or risk buying drugs from spammers? You would think that the whole spam culture would eventually collapse of its own dead weight.

Don Dunnington
IAOC president

Even as an administrator, my comment above got caught in the spam filter, and I had to go into the amin tools to approve it before it could be displayed. I have no idea why it holds some comments and not others. I wonder if it's because my post had the word "spam" in it.

Don

David McInnis,

It's interesting and admirable to see the measures you take to prevent trackback spam. I rifled through the 22 trackbacks on PRweb's news release announcing trackback capability and, indeed, there's no spam. A few are functional or gratuitous trackbacks, but most embellish the release with commentary, adding value to the discussion.

It is somewhat frightening the longevity of these documents. It's like nothing is forgotten anymore. In ten years, I'll probably still be able to find that release and perhaps hundreds or thousands of comments on it.

STEVE O'KEEFE

Hi Steve,

Man, what an interesting concept! Though most blog systems provide a way to turn off comments, what IF they were left unfettered? What might become of the lifecycle of a press release?

Think on this: As your press release content (keywords, focus, posititioning) goes in and out of Google-favor, you could conceivably see activity rise and fall over time, experiencing peaks and valleys like we're now seeing in the return of retro TV, or of out of print books.

Long live the Press Release!...;-)

Steve,
Sounds right to me. Only, just for the record, I did Trackback to IAOCblog from Wordrider (my own blog) a few times. So, somebody left the door open!

Does anybody else think we could use a primer on Trackback and its advantages?

Yes, a trackback is basically a way for a blogger to alert readers of another blog post that they have written something. It is very common in the blogging world.

But the idea of trackbacks in press releases is rather radical. If you link to this release and then scroll to the bottom you will see trackbacks including one to the original post I wrote this morning
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/2/prweb349374.htm

What is interesting is that even though this release came out months ago, I can bring anyone who reads it into our conversation on IAOC blog via trackback.

I think this is great. Does anyone think it is a gimmick??

Gmail does something like automatically: They dig up old messages that relate to new ones and present the whole thread as one "conversation." Takes a bit of getting used to, but now I like it.

I can see the value in it if somebody is looking for current updates on old news.

Hey, maybe on the Net there is no such thing as old news. It's all happening now! Kind of a mystical notion, don't you think?

Alright David, enough bar-raising commentary for one week (and it's just barely TUESDAY, man!).

As for trackbacks in press releases:

1) Give me a few days, and I'll have a finished "What the Bleep are Trackbacks?" PDF for you... a very short, pithy primer on what they are, and how to use them in PR.

2) Comment spam/trackback spam (OK, Social Commentary Spam) is a challenge for any system. I called Al Castle, PRWeb's CTO, and asked him about it. He mentioned that their spam sieve has blocked over 2,000 potential trackback spam messages since PRWeb introduced the feature a short time ago. There are certainly ways to empower your systems to either filter, or provide an audit process to hand-filter spam.

I know TypePad (my personal fave in hosted blogs) has an excellent comment spam filter. SOme comments get through, but not too bad so far (we have half a dozen blogs out there, so have had an opportunity to catch the action as it happens).

3) Aside from the potential SEO benefit (sometimes questionable in trackbacks), one of the greatest assets of trackbacks is in keeping the social dialogue alive... in fact, it can basically die to an ember, and suddenly come alive again because of an event, opportunity, etc...

So, in the context of trackbacks in press releases, I'm with David in that this is a big deal.

And talk about a fast feedback loop! I can more often tell if my PR is reaching my target audience, and if that audience is active and savvy. Interactive, dynamic marketing at its best. Sign me up!

Another interesting use of the trackback process is to tie your OWN blogs to your PR, and vice versa. You close the loop in your communication in an elegant, simple and web-friendly way.

More on this later. Sounds like I better get writing.

Best,
ME

David, I sincerely hope that nothing we do at PRWeb is a gimmick. We try hard to make sure everything we do provides value to the process. We are listening though.

Obviously I feel that trackbacks are a great way of linking conversation. Since a press release is often the start of a conversation it seems to be a natural extension of the technology to include trackbacks in press release content.

-- See you at the top.

David McInnis, PRWeb

Several of our comments in this thread were held for approval because our blogware thought they sounded like spam.

And I just deleted five spam trackbacks that were pending approval....

STEVE