March 2007

Are no more for the time being as they have decided to disable a few of the advanced operators such as link:, linkdomain:, and inurl:.

For the time being, you can still access the results via HotBot.com if you are interested. 😉

We are flattered, but…
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.Eytan Seidman

Lead Program Manager, Live Search

We all have a list of favorite directories we use to jump start our latest projects or clients sites; established web directories such as DMOZ, Yahoo!, BOTW and Business.com are usually at the top of any serious marketer’s campaign.

A number of popular second tier directories that come to mind include Wow Directory, Skaffe and GoGuides, these directories provide quality indexes consisting of manually reviewed and edited web sites, and confer some measure of trust.

While we’re all impressed with or have some respect for the directories mentioned above, one other directory has really caught my attention: Aviva Directory. Aviva is a rapidly growing quality directory, and in my opinion could move ahead of some of the well known second tier directories by years end.

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