Backlinks in GWT vs link: operator in Google search?

[sunnyujjawal]

Google show backlinks in two ways
1. link:sitename.com
2. Links to your site in GWT

But there is lot of difference in both, if Google consider one as backlink in GWT, why not in link:

On what basis Google count these backlinks. One thing i had seen in GWT google count nofollow links also but in link: all are dofollow.

[tedster]

The link: operator has always shown only a sampling of your links - and one that changes over time, in addition. This is a good thing in my opinion. The results of the link: operator are public, whereas the more complete results in WMT are available only to verified site owners.

And therefore - we cannot base analysis of a competitor on what we see in the link: operator results, either.