However, looking at Google's link: comm france business email list and results, the best I can say is that Google has some relationship to the others within 1-2 orders of magnitude, though they may be directionally inaccurate much of the time as well. Just look at the NYTimes.com for example - Google claims they have 2/3rds the links that Salon.com has, yet Yahoo! and Linkscape agree that, in fact, NYTimes.com has 6X+ Salon.com's link total. These are not numbers you want to hang your hat (or any crucial business decisions) on.

Myth #5 - The Google Link Command Tracks Accurately Over Time Unfortunately, I don't have data points I can show, but our observations over time indicate that Google's link count in Webmaster Tools might rise, along with the Yahoo! and Linkscape link counts, yet the Google link: command will show lower numbers. The reverse is sometimes also the case. Without directional consistency, even when compared against their own counts, it's very hard to take the Google link: count seriously.