On the Live Search Weblog, Eytan Seidman addresed the problems Live Search is facing with advanced query syntax in our search engine such as link:, linkdomain: and inurl:.
For those of you who use some of the advanced query syntax in our search engine such as link:, linkdomain: and inurl:, you may have noticed that this functionality has been recently turned off. We have been seeing broad use of these features by legitimate users but unfortunately also what appears to be mass automated usage for data mining. So for now, we have made the tough call to block all queries with these operators.
We are doing our best to get this back online as soon as possible in a manner that allows folks that use this functionality for real queries. We have a few good ideas up our sleeve on how to enable this, but want to make sure we are making the right changes that will give you the functionality you want and all of our customers the experience they deserve. Our apologies and thank you for being patient. Keep an eye on our blog for updates.
Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Land believes that Live Search is planning on offering these advanced search commands under a new Webmaster Tools section. It would not be a bad idea at all since Google and Yahoo both offer something similar and Live Search could then use the service as a communication tool between themselves and webmasters.
