Something seems to have changed in the search engine resuluts display.
I used to be able to get an up to date list of my backlinks by typing link:http://www.website.co.uk into the search box in google and altavista, but neither seems to work any more.
Is there still a way to get a list of your backlinks directly from a search engine, or do you need to use specialist software these days?
You can check your sites backlink here, just go to this link http://www.backlinkwatch.com and submit your website name. It will display you the number of backlinks you have.
Perfect, just what I need.
It does look like a lot of my links have disappeared though. 
I find Google Webmaster Tools shows me more links than any other tool I’ve tried.
Google does not show all the backlink to a website. I use backlinkwatch after Yahoo explore disappeared.
I guess we all have different experiences and different requirements. Backlinkwatch is fine if you don’t have more than 1000 links. I have 772 linking domains showing on GWT and over 4000 individual links so a service that only details 1000 of them doesn’t help my own situation.
No one tool or search engine can find all possible backlinks. In my experience, Google Webmaster Tools reports the highest number of links, so that’s the one I tend to rely on, but it probably still misses many of the links.
Mike