Do trackbacks count as backlinks

If I link to them on my blog - should I bother pinging their trackback

[howiejs]

If I link / discuss someone's post on my own blog - should I ping their trackback?

Does google / yahoo / msn - count trackbacks as backlinks to my site?

[werty]

Howie, from my experience they do count as backlinks.

There has been talk of people trying to develop automated ways of creating trackbacks, just like they have developed ways to automatically sign guestbooks and comments. If they are looking to scale something my guess is that it is working well.

[SEOtop10]

A consortium of search engines has announced the rel="nofollow" attribute for trackback links. So the search engine benefit will be gone anytime now.

However it is a great way to attach yourself to a popular blog and you can get some clickthrough traffic. However you should make a worthwhile post or the site owner may delete your comment.