From the Google Official Webmaster Central Blog comes good news for webmasters:

We’ve extended our support for querying links to your site to much beyond the link: operator you might have used in the past. Now you can use webmaster tools to view a much larger sample of links to pages on your site that we found on the web. Unlike the link: operator, this data is much more comprehensive and can be classified, filtered, and downloaded.

Where can this link data be viewed?
Visit Google Webmaster Central and choose Webmaster Tools. You’ll need to make sure your domain is verified by copy/pasting a META tag to your site(s). The Google blog explains specifially where to find the new links feature:

You can view the links to your site by selecting a verified site in your webmaster tools account and clicking on the new Links tab at the top. Once there, you will see the two options on the left: external links and internal links, with the external links view selected. You will also see a table that lists pages on your site, as shown below.

I checked and didn’t see the new tab for any of the sites we have verified yet (pictured atop this post, circled red) and then learned that they have temporarily deactivated it because of problems (thanks David) that allowed seeing the the backlinks of unverified sites.

Others are saying
Predictably, I’m reading a lot of buzz this morning from others interested in this feature. Also predictably a higher concentration of these people are search engine specialists (SEO).

RustyBrick points to Matt Cutts saying that just because a link is there doesn’t mean the link is carrying any weight. He also compared to Yahoo Site Explorer and adds: “I also tested some other sites, and Yahoo! tends to report more back links overall.”
Aaron Wall offers 5 ways to use the link data.
Steve Bryant: “Google has been doing an amazing job of cozying up to the developer and Webmaster communities in the last few years.”
Ryan: “Webmasters, including myself, always enjoy knowing where their links are coming from, but Google’s search engine never seems to show all of the links to a specific site.”
Andy Beal ponders: “So, question for Google, why in the world can’t we see ALL of our backlinks? We’re grown-ups, we can handle it.”

Hmm
First let’s get my disclaimer that I’m a GOOG shareholder out of the way, but they seem to be treating webmasters more like partners with moves like these which can only help further solidify and strengthen our relationship with them. While I have jumped on the sometimes undeserved press they’ve received for fairly minor and in some cases downright buggy releases, this is one announcement worthy of exposure.

When I can actually see the data for our sites I’ll have more to say. Get the feeling I’ll be refreshing the Webmaster Tools page more than a couple times today.

Update 10:03am PST: The links tab just reappeared and I’m checking it out for this blog. I already downloaded the table data in CSV format. Thanks Google!

Did this post make you go hmm?

Maybe Related Posts (plugin generated)

• The Text-Link-Ads crew works on their first CPC program ShoppingAds in private beta
• What is Search Engine Optimization? Defining search engine optimization
• When complaining about internal links don’t forget Wikipedia
• How to provide Google Adsense with an authorized list of sites to show ads
• 1.2 TB Lacie external USB 2.0 and Firewire drive for $899 USD
• How to manage dead links in WordPress