Trackback might also refer colloquially to items within a section upon the linked page that display the received notifications, usually along with a reciprocal link. Also, the word Trackback is often used colloquially to mean any kind of Linkback.

So, when you reference a post on someone else’s blog in one of your posts, using the trackback URL will ensure the other blog author will be notified. This notification will generally appear in the comments section of their post.

For more details – see the Ultimate Trackback Help Guide.

See more definitions in the Definitive Guide to Blogging Terms.

There are many variations, but typically, someone who wants to organize a carnival posts details of the theme or topic to their blog, and asks readers to submit relevant articles for inclusion in an upcoming edition. The host then collects links to these submissions, edits and annotates them (often in very creative ways), and publishes the resulting round-up to his or her blog.

Many carnivals have a home page or principal organizer, who lines up guest bloggers to host each edition. This means that the carnival travels, appearing on a different blog each time.

Communities of blog readers, writers, and edition hosts form around specific carnivals. The carnivals provide an aggregation of recent posts by the community on a given topic, and the host provides a level of editing and annotation that helps readers find posts they are interested in. Writers who submit their articles to blog carnivals are rewarded with traffic (if the host decides to give them a link and, perhaps, a positive review).

A recent variant is Synchronised Blogging, or synchroblog, where a group of bloggers agree to post on their own blogs on the same broad topic on the same day. The titles are circulated a day or two beforehand, and each blogger includes links to the other blogs.

The earliest blog carnival, so named, was the Carnival of the Vanities, announced at the Silflay Hraka blog in September, 2002.

From www.wikipedia.org

See more definitions in the Definitive Guide to Blogging Terms.