Craven_de_Kere - 7:03 am on Sep 13, 2005 (gmt 0)

I saw that inordinate reliance on "on-page" elements is alledged.

I think that needs more qualification. There is inordinate reliance on certain page on-site elements, particularly the query in the URI string.

My take: Previously MSN had an inordinate reliance on backlinks from a single domain but the reaction to on-site elements has overcompensated toward the easily identifiable onsite elements.

Middleground would probably yeild better results, and qualifying backlinks more accurately (simple example is to differentiate between contextual backlinks on multiple sites vs sitewides more acutely in the backlink qualification routine) would allow for greater reliance on qualified backlinks (which really help you qualify pages on popular searches).