Add a backlink search operator

GabriNori

Basically, add a search operator for backlinks/reverse citations.

The main use case is finding critiques to specific pages/articles.

As for the mechanics, the link: operator should work with both specific page URLs and general websites.

So link:wikipedia.com LISP should return pages that have the word LISP and also have a link to any page on wikipedia.

But link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth debunked should return pages that have the work debunked and that link to that particular Wikipedia article.

Google used to offer this very useful search operator back in the day: http://web.archive.org/web/20021017105948/http://www.google.com/help/operators.html

buteo

I hate that I actually forgot this feature existed—this would be useful for diving peer-reviewed literature as well as potentially surfacing a lot of interesting content that isn't SEO'd. Great suggestion!

GabriNori

buteo It sorta still exists but not on mainstream search engines. E.g. https://ahrefs.com/backlink-checker

buteo

GabriNori Thanks for this! I suppose it shouldn't surprise me that SEO practitioners have far better tools for exploring the web than normal users do, but it does sting a little to try one for myself. A few test searches with this "free" checker just impresses upon me how useful having this function would be.

GabriNori

Dear Kagi team,

Has there been any progress on this topic?

I really want to use and pay for Kagi but without backlink search the value proposition feels bad. Like, if I'm paying for search, I expect it to be able to find stuff that would be really hard to find on free search engines.

I know that backlink search is possible because I've tested SEO tools like moz.com's link explorer that do let me see backlinks even for domains I do not own.

I just don't regularly use such tools because they aren't as versatile as a search engine and they are far too expensive for me as they include many features I neither need nor use.

Vlad

GabriNori You can already find stuff on Kagi that is really hard to find on free search engines. That is what our search index and Small Web initiatives do. This request is for a very specific feature that is not simple to implement hence why it is still under review.

moto

I came here to upvote this