For those of you who have always wanted Google to open up their back link check (example “link:www.example.com”), the time has come. Well, sort of. Google isn’t going to display every single backlink to your site, but they are at least getting better. This is especially helpful since the last update to the links that could be viewed using the “link” command dropped dramatically. Some were complaining that it was 1/10th of the previous data. Depending on the quality of the links, that was sometimes the case, sometimes even less than that number.
Read more about the backlink update here: Google back link update
The new tool is found within Google Webmaster Central and can only be viewed by the site owner (in theory). Remember the little issue that Google had when they released sitemaps? I have faith that GOOG will be able to keep this one secure. In fact, I like the fact that this will be a private tool. When you put a lot of effort into building some nice links, you hate to simply give that list of sites to a competitor (Are you listening YHOO and MSN?).
I wonder if there will be a day when Google doesn’t display any link information to the public. Can you think of a reason why they should or shouldn’t?