What is this MSN site ?: http://search.msn.com/spbasic.htm?

[skipper]

Anybody know anything about this MSN site is? I keep seeing it in my logs. I get hits from it, and my GoTo listings, if I am a top 3 for certain keywords, show there as "featured sites," sometimes my regular MSN listing also shows there. What's odd is that when I click back to that site from my logs, I get that MSN site and it shows in the search bar the keywords that sent the visitor to me -- but my site does not show on my clickback. Must be some kind of dynamic ranking being used? Also, I have not found a way to reach that site independently of clicking back on that URL from where it shows in my logs.

Also what was really interesting to me is that MSN uses 3 GoTo results at the top as featured listings on that spbasic.htm? site. It doesn't do that at its regular search function.

[skirril]

Thats the 'basic' (as opposed to advanced MSN search, I think. I alos get them from time to time, though most of my referrals I get from yahoo and aolsearch..

[rencke]

If people type the keyword into the address field of an IE browser, they get an automatic search reply from MSN and this is what will show up as the referrer.

[bobriggs]

rencke:
I think that referrer will be auto.search.msn.com/results.asp

spbasic hits come from the built in search function of MSIE (the frame on the left side when you hit the search button). The serp is titles only, and the descriptions are built into the title attribute of the anchor tag and show up as tool tips.

[rencke]

>I think that referrer will be auto.search.msn.com/results.asp

Aha! Another mystery solved. Got lots of spbasic:s and a few auto:s too. Thanks bobriggs.

[skipper]

Thanks all for your response.