What ever tool you may use you can not get exact figure of backlinks. I have checked with different tools and every time they give different results for the same site/blog. So i have come to these conclusion that no tool can give you the correct result.
yahoo site explorer just to know all what recorded on yahoo. many people want to know data from all biggest search engines: google, yahoo, msn
I agree that it is confusing to see the results from different sites, everyone says a different thing so its hard to really gauge. I use google webmaster tools and just forgo what other places tell me, too much different information just drives me crazy!
If you just want to find data, use: - Yahoo! Site Explorer - Google Webmaster tools (only for your own site) - link: command in almost any other SE (except MS Live!) Backlinkwatch and ALL other tools get their data from these particular sources. If you want to save time and have all the info in one place, I'd suggest using Backlinkwatch or SEO SpyGlass (the last one gives a way more info than any other tool mentioned here)
Personally I find Google's webmaster tools to be the best for my purposes. I also use Yahoo site explorer, but it's not as robust as Google.
you're right. other tools are collecting data from google, yahoo, msn to make visitors easier to analyze their sites/domains in just one click on one page rather than go to several sites.