link: keyword does not return as many Google search results as expected

Question

It used to be that if I wanted to find what pages linked to some page then I could use the link: keyword filter.

But trying it now it's clearly not working or at least not for me.

• link:http://www.yahoo.co.uk returned 241 results. I'd expect millions
• link:www.yahoo.com returns 6000 results, I expect millions+
• link:www.dogpile.com 692 results. Gotta be way more.

I never ran the test years ago, but I've always assumed the link: keyword worked. I've used it to locate things before. Though testing now it looks like it doesn't work properly, it's not picking up anywhere near enough results.

Answer 1

Source: Search Operators

link:

The query link:URL shows pages that point to that URL. For example, to find pages that point to Google Guide’s home page, enter:

link:www.googleguide.com

Note:

According to Google’s documentation, “you cannot combine a link: search with a regular keyword search.”

Also note that when you combine link: with another advanced operator, Google may not return all the pages that match. The following queries should return lots of results, as you can see if you remove the -site: term in each of these queries.

Find links to the Google home page not on Google’s own site.

• link:www.google.com -site:google.com

Find links to the UK Owners Direct home page not on its own site.

• link:www.www.ownersdirect.co.uk -site:ownersdirect.co.uk

The above source says The following queries should return lots of results, as you can see if you remove the -site: term in each of these queries.

However when testing I found that adding the -site: term produced more results (the opposite of the above statement):

• link:http://www.yahoo.co.uk returns 241 results

• link:http://www.yahoo.co.uk -site:yahoo.co.uk returns about 77,000,000 results