If i use this in google : link:www.inspirationetc.co.uk it tells me there are no results, therefore i have no backlinks to my site. However if i search for : inspirationetc i can see lots of the backlinks i've made. Why does google not see these as backlinks ?
Google only shows a sampling of your links with the link command. So long as the page is cached with your link on it---you are good. MSN seems to have a more accurate count...
I always check my links using MSN. MSN is very quick about showing your inbound links. You gotta be careful though, sometimes it will show something like 14,000 links and get you all excited. Then, when you get to the last page of results, it shows the true number of links which is a much smaller number. It's real depressing.
You can always try this tool on my site: http://www.quickwhois.co.uk/linkpop.php It can compare multiple sites across Google, Yahoo and MSN, it also tells you how many pages you've got indexed.
Your site http://www.quickwhois.co.uk/linkpop.php is not good for one who wants the accurate results. Your results are totally mismatch from the originals. For www.ebay.com, your site showing 4080 figure for indexing where as the exact figure is 367. In yahoo the syntax for checking the back links is linkdomain:www.domain.com, where as you are doing this by link:http://www.domain.com and another difference!! Please clarify it more!!!!!!!!