I linked to Jake's mini guide to pingable update lists yesterday on Smaller World, but I thought that today, I would write an entry comparing these services and whether you really need to ping them all. So, here goes...
Weblogs.com
Argubly the daddy of pingable update monitors. Just about all blogging software can ping this site, and it is used as a data source for a number of sites.
Should I ping it? Yes, definitely. It does not, as far as I know, source its data from other sites.
Ping URL: http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
blo.gs
The second-most popular portal, due its built-in integration with Movable Type and other blogging tools. Also offers member accounts and an 'updates bot' on services like AOL and ICQ that can send an instant message when a blog has updated. It can be pinged directly but also sources data from weblogs.com, pitas.com, antville.org and blogger.com around about every hour.
Should I ping it? Yes. A number of people use the updates bot, so pinging it directly will allow subscribers to find out that your blog has updated sooner.
Ping URL: http://ping.blo.gs/
Blogrolling.com
You probably know this already, but BlogRolling is a service that allows bloggers to manage their blogrolls through a nice web-based interface. It can also highlight recently updated weblogs. Receives data from weblogs.com and blogger.com which is retrieved every 5 minutes. It also has the Fresh Blogs page with an XML feed of recently updated sites, so potentially some sites may be using this as a data source.
Should I ping it? Probably - I would search for your blog's URL first though. If it does appear on a few people's blogrolls then you should ping it so that your URL shows as updated more quickly, and because I've known weblogs that have had timeouts pinging weblogs.com never showing as updated. On the other hand, I don't ping this with Smaller World because no-one has blogrolled it.
Ping URL: http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
Yahoo
Yahoo is launching an RSS module for My Yahoo which can be pinged to show updates. Normally it will check sites for updates using a crawler, but there is also a pingable interface.
Should I ping it? Probably. The service is very new and still only in beta, so there aren't that many users, but it will mean that your RSS feed is retrieved in a more timely manner. If it becomes popular then I would say 'Yes'.
Ping URL: http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
Technorati
You probably all know about Technorati but you may not know that you can ping it. Certainly in the past it used weblogs.com's data, but now I'm not so sure.
Should I ping it? Yes. If everyone did the data would be much more useful, I reckon.
Ping URL: http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
BlogChatter
BlogChatter seems to more of an experiment than a major blogging portal, but it does allow you to add sidebars to watch for blogs that have recently updated. It gets its data from blo.gs, which in turn gets its data from weblogs.com and other sources as previously mentioned.
Should I ping it? I'd say no. I don't think it's that widely used and if you ping blo.gs already then you probably don't need to bother.
Ping URL: http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
BlogRoots
BlogRoots uses trackback to aggregate posts about weblogs in general. It does not get its data from outside sources, but pinged entries should be on the subject of weblogs and not general 'Here are some more cat photos' posts.
Should I ping it? Yes, if you post about blogging-related subjects; otherwise don't bother. Since this uses Trackback, you'll either need to do this on a post-by-post basis or add configure your software to send a ping only when you post to a particular category. This is possible in Movable Type but I'm unsure about other blogging systems - instructions are on the site.
Ping URL: http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
Euro.weblogs.com
Added A localised version of weblogs.com for European weblogs. An XML feed is available but it does not fetch its data from other sources.
Should I ping it? If you're a European weblog, you may like to think about it, but I'd never heard of it before today. Otherwise, don't bother.
Ping URL: http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2
I'm not going to pretend that this is an exhaustive list, and I've included only those services that anyone can ping (for example, I ping movabletype.org but that's only because I donated money and got a recently updated key). If there are any more that you know of then post below or email me.
How about euro.weblogs.com? OK, it’s incredibly quiet compared to the main weblogs.com, but that means anybody stumbling across it will be more likely to click on you. The ping address is rcs.datashed.net/RPC2.
More, for Spanish speaking weblogs:
http://www.bitacoras.net http://www.bitacoras.com
(yes, they are different sites)
And for french speaking people : http://www.blogonautes.com/
Please add PubSub.com to your list of sites requesting pings. You can ping us at:
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
Note: A standard ping (“weblogUpdate.Ping”) will work fine, but we do prefer to receive extended Pings (“weblogUpdate.extendedPing”) as defined by blo.gs.
bob wyman
thank you for this. I have amended my pings based on this post.
A lot of Japanese bloggers are pinging this one: http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
For German blogs: http://ping.blogg.de/
My friend named olrog is fighting his feels for Chris
Thank you for great information! It helped me a lot. You are great.
This is awesome! Thanks.
Thanks for summarizing these, and sorry I didn’t comment sooner. I really didn’t know what the value of any of them were anyway. But since my site could always use a bit more traffic, I’m now pinging a total of nine places, and have updated my post accordingly.