August 08, 2005

Trackback the News

No, this isn't a post on how we should be worried about how much Google knows about us. If you're scared learn to clean out all your cookies and use anonymizer like Tor. Also wonder why Google would even care about you as more than an eyeball for their ads.

What caught my attention was CNET News.com now has trackbacks on their stories. With one click I can read comments on the story from webloggers. It's like trackbacks for weblogs only a weblog isn't the instigator. A bright light is shining on me: all webpages with semi-static (not generated on the fly) should have trackback. News stories, Amazon product links, think tank policy papers, digital photo collections, flash games, you name it. Imagine going to Amazon because you're interested in a video game. Along with the price and customer reviews you see a link to a walk-through from some sleep-deprived gaming weblogger. That walk-through might help you decide if the game is too hard, too easy, or not as cool as you thought. It could spur a sale which Amazon would love and it would increase traffic for the weblogger. If the web is becoming more of a conversation then trackbacks can only help us hear all the voices.

"Google Balances Privacy, Reach"