Comparing backlink data – lies, damned lies, and statistics

In continuance with trust post I did few weeks ago, I decided to rant about backlink statistics various search engines so generously provide.  Without further ranting and blathering, let’s see some statistical tables!

Lies…
 

Notice google.com backlink ratio between Google and Yahoo – Yahoo figure is nearly 163 times larger than Google’s own figure!  And interestingly www.amazon.com is returning ” Your search – link:www.amazon.com  – did not match any documents.”.

Damned lies….

Notice amazon.de – this time the backlink ratio between Google and Yahoo figures is amazing 1:1830.  It is a well known fact that Google shows only a sampling, but selecting only 1 out of each approx. 2000 pages MUST BE fine art.  I wonder what kind of algo Google uses to filter visible backlinks?

…and nothing but lies

Notice amazon.fr – Google says no backlinks, Yahoo finds only 719, AllTheWeb 485 backlinks – MSN whooping 103k. Interestingly the w/w subdomain count for MSN is exactly the same, which might indicate how MSN counts backlinks figures. 

And the truth? IMHO the really trustworthy backlink information can be analyzed only from log/referer data.  Everything else is more or less a numbers game where the truth is in the eye of the beholder.

As always, feel free to share your thoughts and comments.