Google Releases New Backlink Tools

you can also watch the video relating to this at http://videos.webpronews.com/2007/02/06/112/
update : the link tab is back

 

I think Google realized that most people were checking their links through Yahoo. They wanted the attention to be back on them. The longer they keep people around, the more money they will make.

 

Not sure if you are aware of this, but when you log in to your Google Sitemaps account there is a new function which will check your baclinks and return results!

Looks good!

 

Calbert,

How do the numbers compare to the link: function? Is it just as fickle or is it showing all of your recognized incomings?

 

very differently.

 

Can you put together a comparison for your sites? Im curious how different it actually is before I put in any time checking it out.

 

They've only just launched a back link checker? Aren't they a bit behind the times? I know services like Online Utility have had a back link checker for ages. I'm really surprised if they've only just caught on to this sort of webmaster tool.

 

Using link:site Googles shows me 130 or so backlinks, using the new tool it shows 4,000+. Well worth checking out. You can also drill down and see what internal pages of your site have links and how many. It's pretty cool.

PS: welcome back.

 

They have always been purposely "behind the times" on things like checking backlinks in order to keep SEOs from manipulating them. Of course it doesn't stop that.

They are obviously doing it only to serve their own interests which is to get people using the sitemaps feature. I suppose if it gives every recognized link, its ok to be used

edit: Looks like GFC already broke this two days ago - http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=237389

 

link:www.vgchat.com
Results 1 - 11 of about 15 linking to www.vgchat.com

er...what, what's this...

This table provides a list of external pages that link to http://www.vgchat.com/
1 to 30 of 1140

The search results are smoking crack!!!!

 

Cool tool, although when i do backlink check manually in google, results are as always quiet low. So this tool doesn't have much significance as google still isn't counting all links which are shown in google backlink checker itself.

 

The links Google displays using link: are NOT the only ones it counts

 

You can also export all the links to a CSV file which is useful.

Matt Cutts has on his blog this:

"The link: command has always returned a small fraction of the backlinks that Google knows about, mainly for historical reasons (e.g. limited disk space on the machines that served up “link:” data)."

and this:
"Do not assume just because you see a backlink that it’s carrying weight."

 

that link: never used to show all the links anyway(again to deter SEO) as well. Will surely compare this with MSN backlinks.

 

Can we safely conclude that the tool is currently not working properly...!?

 

How do you get to it? I can't seem to find it.

 

Sounds cool. How can you compare this to Yahoo site explorer?

 

Working fine for me.

 

You mean it's showing all your backlinks (as far as you know) and not showing any pages where you do not in fact have links? Not for me it ain't.

The other suspicious thing is that since the tool appeared yesterday, my list is showing the exact same number of links, even though you would expect this to be in constant flux - especially as some of the "backlinks" shown are not actually correct at all...

 

No, no one ever said this will show "all" known links. Vanessa even verified that earlier in this very thread. As far as it showing links on pages that you never think linked to you...with all the link networks & link rotation possibilities just becuase you don't see a link there now doesn't mean Google didn't see it when it last visited the page.