dkoller - 8:43 am on Dec 6, 2003 (gmt 0)

It seems to be ordered by price, I tried 40 or so searches for common products, all appeared in price order.

Oh brother. If it is that simple there will be serious problems.
Think of all the schemes sites will come up with to gain the top slot. (e.g. increased shipping, conditional pricing, etc.) Premature to say, but just reading what you had to say incited me.

the TRUE search results only take up 25% of the initial screen

As much as 320px now before you get to the first result :(