Backlinks Reset to "Old Data"

The backlink results from the update on 10/16 have been reset.

[bbott]

The backlink update data from 10/16 has been removed and the old data is now showing. Any ideas why google would "undo" the backlink update?

Google better get their act together, i'm seeing more and more webmasters focus on Yahoo now.

[Powdork]

ny sites never got to play with the new update data (10/16). Or pe5rhaps they did but just didn't change. That would be hard to believe since
1. I got lots and lots of new links, and
b) Backlink changes rarely have anything to do with new data lately.

Google needs to skip the backlink updates, the pr updates, the directory updates, and go ahead with the serps update!

[steveb]

The optimistic view would be to hope that they did this because they are going to get rid of this humiliating nonsense and either kill the command or have it return complete results (like Yahoo), or one based on a general criteria, like they used to.

[WebFusion]

Google better get their act together, i'm seeing more and more webmasters focus on Yahoo now.

I love it when I read statements like this. Where are you "seeing" these webmaster's focusing their efforts on Yahoo?

If they are true webMASTERS they never focus their efforts on ONE engine, nor can they afford to ignore google (especially if they work as a webmaster for a compaany. What would you tell your employer -forget about google, it's too hard?)

While I agree google appears to be fumbling in the dark for the last 6 months or so, I doubt serious webmaster can or will be able to afford to stop devoting at least a portion of their SEM efforts towards google. 1/3 of the search engine pie is STILL a hell of a big slice of pie.

[netguy]

>>i'm seeing more and more webmasters focus on Yahoo

No doubt ALL the majors are important, but I certainly wouldn't 'focus' on Yahoo over Google until Y!s search gets a much wider audience.

For a comparison of top positions we have across several dozen sites in Y! and G - whether it's news searches, tourism, consumer products, commercial products, or service industries - the same search word or phrase produces 20 to 100 times (or much more) the results in Google over Yahoo.

As far as backlinks and PR changes, what you see is not what you get. I just watched a solid PR8 with 35,000 backlinks (and more than 1 million impressions/day) drop to a PR7 in the last update. Search engine results remained unchanged, as do our PR5s and PR6s. [short of the semantics, does anybody really think Yahoo should have dropped to a PR9?]

Obviously you need a certain amount of horsepower (PR) to stay ahead of the game with Google, but less PR is more after the last update, and if you do basic SEO, have the quality backlinks, and lots of fresh content, I still believe you can maintain a top position in virtually any market segment - despite what Google is telling us using conventional wisdom.

Steve

[synergy]

...i'm seeing more and more webmasters focus on Yahoo now.

I think this is their objctive. Think about it. To the common user Google looks great... they (still) find what they want when they want it. I always smile when I hear a non-webmaster talk about "Googling" something.

Why wouldn't Google WANT to take webmaster focus off themselves? It would make their goal of providing consistant & relevant results much easier. They refuse to allow the webmasters to take advantage of them and their results any longer.

I can't say that I blame them.

[scenpro]

I think (and i say think) it's just bouncing/dancing. At one point to day I had 'X' number of backlinks and then a couple of hours later 'Y' number of backlinks and then back to 'X'. While the new version was 'up' i had a bunch of new searches i hadn't seen before and then back to the same old ones.

[bbott]

No it's deffinitely not bounching or settling data.

I just checked all data centers and they're all showing the data prior to the 10/16 update.

[steveb]

Google Directory has updated.