Webmaster tools doubles external links

[dickbaker]

I signed on with Google's webmaster tools as soon as the feature came out. All during that time the number of external links was reported as being between 4800 and 5800. Two days ago, though, that number jumped to nearly 11,000.

I don't think Google is counting all external links, because Yahoo shows far more. But why the change? Has anyone else experienced this?

[tedster]

I find that Google changes how they REPORT links from time to time - but I have no sense that links I don't seeing in those reports don't "count". In fact - the exact opposite is true. Google will even report nofollow links and other types of links, even when their algo nullifies any link juice in that case.

I just checked a few accounts and i don't see any recent jumps - but clearly your mileage has varied from mine.