inbound links search in Google compared to FAST

inbound link search

[puskas]

Is the only reason to why link: search syntax often gives less results in Google than in FAST that Google doesn't show inbound links on PR 3 pages and less?

Is the validation of the PageRank based on the inbound links found in the link: search syntax or are there more inbound links (like them you find in FAST) that they also validate but don't show?

[Brett_Tabke]

1) true.

2) all links count. atleast they used to. Since May - your mileage may vary.

[Bernard]

I have found instances where (at least pre-Dominic - I haven't checked lately), Google returned significantly more backlinks than AllTheWeb. This occurs where websites have changed names over the years and maintained their old names aliased to the new one.

Google appears to count all backlinks to all of the domains sharing the same IP in the link: search where AllTheWeb only displays the backlinks that link to the specific domain you specify.

[mrguy]

In my case, Fast has been adding links while Google takes them away.

Fast = 873

Google 159

4 to 1 difference. It used to only be about a 2 to 1.

Now, if only more people would use Fast. I'm ranked well there but get 0 traffic from them.

[puskas]

I although doubt that the only reason of the inbound links difference is that Google doesn't show inbound links on PR 3 pages and less.

Of course all links count, I suppose even those that are not shown because of the PR 3 and less, but are there other links also that counts but not findable with link: search syntax in Google? I suppose only Brin and Page for real now that answer, so forget the question :-)

But still, why does otherwise FAST often, not always, show more inbound links though they have a smaller database? The latest Greg Notess unique hits report(march, 2002) was showing Google as number one and FAST as number 3.
[searchengineshowdown.com...]

Before(feb., 2002) FAST was number 1 and if the test was done today maybe FAST would be number 1 and that could be a part of the reason.