Pingbacks and trackbacks use drastically different communication technologies (XML-RPC and HTTP POST, respectively).

The pingback is generally displayed on Person A's blog as simply a link to Person B's post. In this way, all editorial control over posts rests exclusively with the individual authors (unlike the trackback excerpt, which can be edited by the trackback recipient). The automatic verification process introduces a level of authenticity, making it harder to fake a pingback.

Some feel that trackbacks are superior because readers of Person A's blog can at least see some of what Person B has to say, and then decide if they want to read more (and therefore click over to Person B's blog). Others feel that pingbacks are superior because they create a verifiable connection between posts.

Pingbacks were designed to solve some of the problems that people saw with trackbacks.Trackbacks contain more content, i.e. the excerpt, where pingbacks just have the source and destination links