I have to disagree with Bruce here.  Using the Link: search command is the way to determine if Google knows about any links to your site.  It is the same thing they use in the webmasters tools. There may be a little delay from when you put the link up to when they actually have it listed as a link, but if it is a good link and Google has allowed it, then it should show up fairly quick.

I do agree that PageRank takes longer to assign, but you have to have backlinks before you are going to get PageRank.

MSN and Yahoo seem to list way more backlinks than Google ever does which may be the reason that their SERPs are not as good as Google's.

Google analytics is not the way to tell if Googlebot has indexed your page.

Also you should not expect links from Link farms like this one http://www.adrianflux.co.uk/links.php?fct=links&id=46 to ever be counted by Google.  I'm not saying that it won't ever be counted, but your chances are much better with a real human inserted link that is in a context relevant page.

Thanks, John. I'll have to look into this a bit more...but didn't find any in the query you posted (for any with a primary PR of <4):

link:http://tulsadnug.org/EditModule.aspx?tabid=1&def=Register - did not match any documents.

link:http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Community/ForumsDotNetNuke/tabid/795/forumid/-1/threadid/101803/threadpage/2/scope/posts/Default.aspx - did not match any documents.

link:http://www.nwadnug.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1&def=privacy - did not match any documents.

link:http://www.snapsis.com/DotNetNuke-Support-Forums.aspx - did not match any documents.

link:http://www.codevalve.com/newsite/default.asp?id=1&ACT=5&content=16&mnu=1 - did not match any documents.

link:http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Community/ForumsDotNetNuke/tabid/795/forumid/-1/threadid/101803/threadpage/2/scope/posts/Default.aspx - did not match any documents.

I do, however, show ~400 in my Google Webmaster tools...will revist this once they do an update to the PR toolbar and I move the needle (will still be under 4 for the next update, so a good case study).

Ahhhh, right, John. I think what I meant to say came out backwards, no pun intended. :)

What I meant was that I read that Google will not display the backlinks for any site with a PR<4, though they display the backlinks to sites with PR=>4, irrespective of the PR of the incoming link. Or, more simply, since I am sporting an authoritative PR0, none of the backlinks to my site will display if you use the link: query, though my Google Webmaster tools suggest I have hundreds linking to me now. Since you have a PR>4, your backlinks are displayed; the sites with less than a PR4 will not display their respective backlinks when you use the link: query.

I guess the better way to phrase is would be that Google will only display YOUR incoming links when using the link: query if YOUR PR is >=4.

Is there anyway to test this hypothesis with one of those complex Google queries? I am now curious and hate to wait until they update the toolbar stats. If I come out of the gate with a PR2, as the Webmaster tools suggest ,and if I do a link: http://www.bidlesstravel.com and it returns no links, I'll know it to be true...but still challenge convention until proven. ;)