Easy way to get accurate backlink counts from Google and Yahoo.

If you are a regular Google user and website owner, you know that the link: modifier doesn't give accurate results for the number of backlinks pointing at a site. In the good old days we'd go to alltheweb.com and do a search with link:www.ahfx.net to get an approximation of the number of backlinks because they didn't dummy down the number of backlinks like Google does. However, now we've got better tools. To get a more accurate backlink count you have a couple of options.

1. Sign up for a Google account and go the the webmaster tools. You will first need to verify you own the account. Then you can access a number of important items like web crawl errors, statistics, and links. Just use the link tab to see a much more detailed view of backlinks.
2. You can use Yahoo's Site Explorer. Yahoo's site explorer is a great little tool to figure out just who is linking to someone without going through the hoops of signing up with Google and verifying you own a domain.

Well there is another SEO contest going on, so we'll see how much SPAM comments start accumulating on discussion boards and blogs all over the world. This contest is for the keywords "globalwarming awareness2007 ". Those that rank highest on the big three (Google, Yahoo, and MSN) will win (if there is a tie then of course the highest Google rank wins).

Official Rules

1. Site must include either a SEO World Championship text link or a banner . (The banner may be linked or not linked)
   
2. Valid contact information must be found on the site, E-mail is preferred.
   
3. Your official domain must be registered the same day or after January the 15th 2007.(All domains registered before the 15th of January 2007 will not qualify for the competition, no record of the domain is allowed. See archive.org)
   
4. Website will not use SEO methods which are clearly not approved by Search Engine Guidelines for example: doorway pages, etc. See Google webmaster Guidelines. (Any participant ignoring the Google webmaster guidelines will not qualify for a prize)

It is good that they get rid of "old domains" to help level the playing field. However, with an end date of May 1st, people will be hard pressed to get in and rank in such a short amount of time. I am also impressed that they chose a topic that people can benefit from instead of some random garbage word that no one will ever use after the contest is done.

Well good luck and we'll see you in May.

I am getting some acquaintance with the trade of professional testing; it is just amazing how far were my previous testing notions from the state of the art in such a profession.

Again, pillars from that trade like Glenford J. Myers and Cem Kaner help me to open my eyes.

For instance, in Lessons Learned in Software Testing by Cem Kaner, James Bach, Bret Pettichord, they said testing is applied epistemology; that is a very intense, deep in meaning and very compelling statement.