Why does google not count certain types of links?

I have a question as to why Google doesn't seem to index some links.

I am doing some web design modifications to a friends website. And I attempted an experiment in which I created a page in the back end and added a link to one of my websites :

URL BLOCKED

At the bottom of the page I added a link to my website "Home of the New Age of Spirit". That link, links to my website (URL BLOCKED) . Other links on that page are for link directories in which a recripical link had to be exchanged.

Now when I go to google and type in "link:URLBLOCKED" that link doesn't show up? And I placed it over 2.5 months ago.

Google has indeed indexed that page which has that link since if you type in "cache:URLBLOCKED" it shows it has a copy of that page with a link.


Another example is of an article I wrote 10 years ago on my geocities website. I now have a more user friendly version of that article and created a link on the original page. This it the webpage :

URL BLOCKED

So as you can see the beginning I have a link to my spiritconnect site going straight to the article : (URL BLOCKED )

However, when I do "linkURL BLOCKED)" again that link doesn't show up?

What gives?

Google's link: command shows only a very very small sample of back links, in no particular order. This is the same for all sites, not just yours.

You'll get a more complete list (though still not 100%) by setting up a Google Webmaster Tools account and viewing the back links there. Also, Yahoo! Site Explorer offers a very comprehensive list of back links (as seen by Yahoo!).

Thanks for the clear and concise answer.

I have Google Webmasters tools and went in and can see the information there.

Is there any reason as to why google shows the links that it does in the LINK: function. Would there be anything special with those links? (Ie. have higher significance)

No, there's no pattern that I can deduce. It just seems to be a random sample -- definitely not the strongest/best/most significant ones.