What's wrong with MSN?

you guys see that

[atlrus]

I was wondering if any of you can see this:

when I do a search, the first 2 pages with returned results seem just fine, but after the second page, the rest of the pages show only between 1 and 4 results?!?

[Coop99]

I have noticed this lately too. Not only will some pages only show a few results, but sometimes a search query that SHOULD have thousands or hundreds of thousands of results only show 10 and one page.

I also saw a search where the sponsored listings were way down the page all the way below the 10 listings on the page. There are some bugs, but I only see it once in awhile!

[inbound]

I have seen this issue many times in the last few months, it also seems to happen more often for certain queries.

I have a site that is #1 for a single word search (not a very popular term) which says there should be 1,500,000 results but it often shows just 7! That's not bad for me as I have 2 of those 7 results, but it's poor for the user and will put people off using MSN.

I hope they sort it as variety of results is a good thing (especially if you do well on MSN :)

[Marcia]

I also saw a search where the sponsored listings were way down the page all the way below the 10 listings on the page. There are some bugs, but I only see it once in awhile!

I saw the same thing, it looked like it was caused by their snippet not wrapping for one site. There's a visible feedback form on the bottom of every page though, so it's easy enough to submit a bug report.

[Coop99]

Thanks for the info Marcia, I love MSN and would definately like it running smoothly as often as possible!

[vincentg]

I also noticed this

MSN is not ever going to be a top contender from what I see of this search engine.

Why did they bother to develop a search engine at all.

From what I see they should just remove the regular search listing and just show PPC.

They are more than half way there already.
Some pages show 3 listings from search while the they show 11 PPC listings.

11 PPC listings! Don't ya think it's a bit much - lol

Hey don't stop there add 20 pop-up windows while you are at it.

Vin

[soapystar]

MSN seems to be domninated by big time link swappers and link exchnage networks built on automated software that Google dumped at least two years ago.

[Clint]

>>>>MSN seems to be dominated by big time link swappers and link exchange networks built on automated software that Google dumped at least two years ago. <<<<<

Yep, that is EXACTLY what I'm seeing. Link farms and directory sites having nothing to do with a search are topping their SERP's just because they MIGHT have ONE link with ONE search word in it, then another link with the OTHER search word in it!

[Marcia]

MSN rocks from where I sit. A lot may depend on what niche sites are in and who's being competed against. For different markets the scene is entirely different with any search engine.

I am NOT a big time player and NOT a big-time link swapper, in fact I absolutely LOATHE doing links and rarely bother except for an odd site I like here and there, to exchange links. And I've just had a record month, surpassing even last Holiday season - thanks to MSN.

As far as I can see, with MSN a lot depends on optimization and content on pages and within the site itself - and vocabulary rich content particularly. I've got a page ranking for a four-word phrase, and two of the words are not on the page, nor are they in any anchor text pointing to the page. Nothing to do with links.