If I type my site's(or pretty much any site) into google and get the page that says:

* Show Google's cache of google.com
* Find web pages that are similar to google.com
* Find web pages that link to google.com
* Find web pages from the site google.com
* Find web pages that contain the term "google.com"

If I click for google to show me the sites that contain the term, I see most of the sites that link to me. If I click on "link to" I see a much shorter list. Is there any reason for that? Do they update the "links" slower?

Google's link: - they only show a small sample of known linkage data...it has always been that way with google.

as far as contain the term it just finds pages with that text. some will be links and some will be unlinked mentions.

Hey Aaron! Fancy seeing you around here lately. To elaborate on what Aaron said about Google's link: function ... I believe it's updated near monthly?

Hey All,

I rarely use the Google link function. I think Yahoo's linkdomain function is far more comprehensive. But hey, why restrict yourself? There are great tools out there, such as Aaron's Back Link Analyzer that will show you who is linking to you across the major engines and much more. Good stuff. 2 thumbs up for a great free tool.