Trackback Knocks Out Google
The Register has this article about Google getting rid of its famed PageRank system due to the TrackBack feature in blogs. Trackback is a way to create a list of blogs that refer to your original blog entry. It is a very slick way to show blogging community. But it creates a blank page. Google's PageRank sees those blank pages as legitimate sites that get a large amount of hits and so they show up as very high ranking pages. In some searches, seven out of the top ten sites listed were empty TrackBack pages! So Google has pulled PageRank and put in some big filters to see if they can put a stop to this situation.