What is a "pingback"?

A "pingback" is a notification from a website or blog to another that it has posted a link to their article. Typically, the author of the article receives a pingback notification through its content management system. If approved, the pingback notification may appear as a comment on the article post.

Website administrators normally have the ability to enable pingbacks to be sent when they link to an article, or to be received when someone links to their article. The pingback sometimes includes an excerpt from the post along with the link. Receiving pingback notifications enables a website to track when other sites link to their articles.