Microsoft has turned off some advanced operators for their Live Search site. Webmasters who use operators like link: and linkdomain: to learn more about the reach of their websites in Live Search will have to wait a while before Microsoft turns them back on again.

Live Search lead program manager Eytan Seidman said Microsoft has been seeing “what appears to be mass automated usage for data mining” through the use of those operators. Until they find a way to stop those requests while keeping advanced operators open for legitimate users, webmasters have been shut off from finding more information about their sites on the service.

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