Yahoo’s linkdomain: command is the one all SEOs use a lot. I use it daily. To save some typing, I actually like to automate my backlink checking queries by using shortcuts – like the one that is built into SearchStatus. Only problem is, a while ago Yahoo! started directing all the linkdomain: queries to its Site Explorer – a tool designed specifically for exploring a site’s backlinks. Why is that a problem? You see, Site Explorer is a great tool when you are looking at your own site’s backlinks, just like Google Webmaster Tools after you have verified that the site really belongs to you. But for researching other sites’ backlinks, it may not be as helpful or convenient. Furthermore, if you use tools like SEO4Firefox to get the data about each and every link on the fly, it simply won’t work with that interface.
People have come up with a way around Yahoo’s redirects to Site Explorer – all you ahve to do is add “-site:” to your linkdomain: query and you end up seeing the same old search results without being redirected. This hack has even been implemented in the SearchStatus Firefox plugin for a while – but in the recent update, they switched it back to Site Explorer for some reason. Don’t know about you, but I personally find it not so cool and I know of otehr people who’d rather have the old fashioned search results link in their shortcuts as well. So I’ve been thinking about writing a Ubiquity command to fix this problem for a while now but kinda never got around to it.
Today though, one of my lads has once again complained to me about SearchStatus sending him over to Site Explorer and I said, ok then, let me sit down and make you a Ubiquity command to use with regular search results.
The resulting command for checking Yahoo! backlinks of a site without getting redirected to Site Explorer is in my Ubiquity feed – feel free to use it and enjoy!
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