Google link: operator give no results

[Sarah Atkinson]

Is it just me or does the google Link: tool not work at all. I try it and it comes up with nothing. Is there any other link tools that work out there?

[tedster]

It's never been a "good" operator for studying backlnks because it only gives a partial sample of all the links that Google knows about. See this thread for a full discussion:

Google link: operator FAQ - it's not like other search engines [webmasterworld.com]

For that reason, most people I know use Yahoo! SiteExplorer so they can get more complete link data.

Right now at least, Google's link: operator does seem a lot more limited, even than its usual condition. I just checked several domains that I work with regularly. Some of them came up with zero, when I know there are thousands of backlinks.

It's not a complete washout. Strong sites - microsoft.com is a good example - still show some backlinks.

By the way, that link: operator FAQ is always easly found as part of the Hot Hot Topics area [webmasterworld.com], which is always pinned to the top of this forum's index page.