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MSN Link Search Still Not Working
April 25, 2007
For weeks now, I've noticed that MSN's [link:www.domain.com] search operator hasn't been working. Not only does it not pull up a list of results for links, but the stupid thing isn't even set up as a custom 404 page!!! Did you get that? MSN doesn't have custom 404's!!!!
I don't know about y'all, but I think MSN REALLY needs to get their act together with items such as the ones listed above if they're ever looking to grab at market share the likes of Yahoo! and Google. But for some reason, I'm doubting MSN is going to take away any competitors user base if their search engine continues to disappoint.
Happy hump day, my fellow SEO geeks!!!
All posts by Sean Bolton
posted by Sean Bolton at April 25, 2007 02:59 PM
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» SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 26, 2007 from Search Engine Land: News About Search Engines & Search Marketing
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web:... [Read More]
Tracked on April 26, 2007 04:23 PM
» SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 26, 2007 from Minefeed.com
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on
Search Engine Land and from other
places across [...] [Read More]
Tracked on May 2, 2007 04:34 PM
Comments
They disabled it on purpose.
http://blogs.msdn.com/livesearch/archive/2007/03/28/we-are-flattered-but.aspx
Posted by: Adrienne Doss at April 25, 2007 03:35 PM
Well, we all know that MSN only has a share in the market because theirs is the default starting page for Internet Explorer. My guess is that the only users who prefer MSN use it without knowing there are better alternatives. Considering such users probably wouldn't know (or care) about the link command, I can see how it's not a big item on MSN's to-do list.
Posted by: Stephen Ward at April 25, 2007 04:40 PM
I still don't understand why MSN has discontinued, at least temporarily, the link: syntax. Not being abble to include MSN backlinks data when preparing competitive analytics for websites has got to make MSN look bad. We (SearchWiz actually try to promote MSN in that they seem to be quicker (than Google) in ranking websites, which in turn, gives MSN more credibility. However, without important data to report to website owners, such as inbound links, MSN is biting their own feet.
Posted by: Frank Okun at May 1, 2007 03:00 PM
Still down... tick tock, tick tock.
If M$ had special plans up their sleeve to make this better, why not just let the functionality continue to exist and then roll out the changes when their ready? It's not like a few more months of using "link:" is going to make much of a difference considering that it's been available for years.
Yet another dumb decision...
Posted by: Tom at July 21, 2007 02:38 PM