So, you've noticed that Google doesn't show all of the backlinks to your site, by either the 'link"' commande or in Google Webmaster Central that you see when you perform the same sort of command on Yahoo.
Your might ask yourself, "Where are all my backlinks?!?" "Why doesn't Google give me a list of ALL my backlinks?" Or even, "What does Google consider a backlink?"
It's pretty simple, really. The links you see in the 'link' command, or in Google's webmaster tools are the backlinks that are actually counted towards that domains PR rating. That's why you never see 'no follow' backlinks listed in either of those places.
Keep in mind that sometimes google 'resets' the backlinks that count towards a domains PR when if a domain expires. Essentially, google doesn't want someone who picks up the expired domain to reap the rewards of the footwork that the old dwmain owner worked for. That's why sometimes you see a domain with a PR4, but with no backlinks visable on google.
The VAST majority of backlinks you see using the Yahoo baclink checker are crap. Google knows it, so they don't count them when they calculate PR. That's why, for the most part, you only see QUALITY backlinks from the google link command, or in Google webmaster central.
I've seen Matt Cuts allude to backlinks shown by the link command or in webmaster tools as being a 'subset' of the number of backlinks a site has, but i think he means it's a subset of all of the backlinks, with all of the backlinks being ones that don't count towards PR.
After all, backlinks that count towards a domain's PR value is a 'subset' of all of the domains backlinks. Link farms, paid directories, and backlinks acquired before a domain expired are all reasons why Google wouldn't use them to calculate PR.
I'm a pretty firm believer that the links shown by the link command and in webmaster tools are all of the links that count towards the PR value. Or more accurately, it will be all the backlinks a domain's PR value is the next time the PR is calculated for that domain.
One last thing. if you thought you've stumbled upon the answer, and you've noticed that the 'link" command will give you quite a few more backlinks if you put a space between the link command the your domain, think again. Unfortunately, that's not the same thing. if you use a space after the link:, then it is just searching the web for two different key phrases, "link:" and "www.yoursite.com". You'll get almost the exact same result as if you just search for "www.yoursite.com".
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