MHes - 9:37 am on Mar 13, 2007 (gmt 0)

Sir Bert Orchard -
>Why/How is Google's filter or Algo or whatever it is rewarding one page whilst punishing another when they are formatted/constucted and optimised in the same way

If the search for both pages is equally competitive, then the answer to your question must be that both pages are not optimised the same way.

Tedster
>I'm thinking bigger than mere corrupt data, kidder - more like a buggy infrastructure change

If google had no bugs or achieved it's goals perfectly, there would be no need for SEO. Seo is all about understanding the inefficiencies of google and exploiting them.... bring on the bugs, this is why seo exists and we have the opportunity to beat worthy competition. The infrastructure change probably does have bugs, but sadly less than before.

I've never understand people wanting google to get better.... affiliates, directories and (lets be honest) our 'average' content probably would never make it into the top 10. When you see google make a mistake, rejoice. When it's you they have hit, seize the challange, don't whinge. Forget the worthyness of your site, it's all about seo. If it wasn't, then bottom is probably where you should be.