pleeker - 6:09 pm on Jul 1, 2004 (gmt 0)

I strongly believe that it's for the best that authority sites start SEO'ing and not having them in the results will be a plus for mom n pops who try to compete with them. A level playing field is best for all players.

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, kushmania.

I respect your opinion, but disagree. Running a search engine isn't about creating a level playing field for web site owners. It's about returning relevant results to searchers. Apple.com should come up first if someone searches for "apple computer." Yet Apple's home page has zero SEO -- one word <title>, no "Description" meta tag, very little text on the home page, etc. (They do get a zillion inbound links, of course....)

MSN's new search needs to address authority sites. And it will. I'm just surprised that wasn't factored in even at this early stage.