SEOmoz Launches Open Site Explorer, A Competitor (Replacement?) To Yahoo Site Explorer

SEOmoz has launched Open Site Explorer, a new tool that joins the already crowded field of link analysis tools. In choosing that name, SEOmoz is somewhat blatantly positioning it as a competitor, and perhaps eventual replacement, for Yahoo’s popular Site Explorer tool.

Open Site Explorer provides a number of data points pulled from SEOmoz’s Linkscape tool and its index of the web. It shows stats such as overall link counts and a count of domains that link to a URL, along with anchor text distribution and more. A helpful feature is the ability to compare two domains side by side.

Although it’s called “open,” the tool is limited for those who aren’t SEOmoz Pro members. Guests are allowed three reports per day, and those reports will show only up to 200 links per report. SEOmoz free account holders get unlimited reports and can see up to 1,000 links per report — this is the level that seems to be most similar to what Yahoo Site Explorer offers. Paying SEOmoz Pro members get unlimited reports, up to 10,000 links per report, and a variety of other metrics not available to anyone else.

Is it a competitor for Yahoo’s Site Explorer? Most certainly. Is it a possible replacement? Well, that depends on what happens if and when the Microsoft-Yahoo search deal gets approved. When asked last night about the future of Yahoo Site Explorer, spokespersons from both companies said they couldn’t comment.