MSN Shuts Down Some Basic Search Queries
Published May 1st, 2007 in SEOMSN live search shuts down query syntax commands making it slightly harder for data mining. Users can no longer use commands such as link:, linkdomain: nor inurl:. Not that I did from time to time, but was wondering what happened to the Marketleap link popularity feature part of MSN. Only to find a link going directly to the MSN official blog explaining the shutdown due to inadequacies of fighting off other automation tools that use MSN for data mining.
Webmasters are having a fit over this.
- It messes with their existing backlink reports.
- Clients need some hand holding while link counts are decimated by fifty percent.
- Finds new reason never to use MSN search ever again.
- As if MSN did not complicate search enough with a full access menu navigation bar below the search box.
Rejoice in the fact that we can still utilize Yahoo! search for these features for a more accurate link count even compared to Google and MSN combined.
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Yah, I noticed this too. Seems like MSN is going the wrong direction if they want to compete. Dropping services is never good.
I’ve been using the Google webmaster tools a lot for my link counts. Although they are always slower than Yahoo in showing links, it give a better idea on what Google is thinking.