MSN Rankings

Anyone shed any light on MSN algo?

[tennismaster]

Hi,

We have PFI with inktomi and looksmart, but are confused by
the rankings in MSN.

The search terms return `WEB SITES` mostly,
and although these are supplied by Inktomi,
they is little similarity
between pure inktomi and MSN.

Does Link Pop count for much in MSN? Our links have gone
up by hundreds in last few months, and although we are
well ranked in google and yahoo, we have not moved in MSN.

What is particularly puzzling is the sites above us in MSN
are nowhere in google etc.
There does seem to be more relevence on keywords
in the TITLE, DESCRIPTION and/or the DOMAIN in MSN,
but that does not seem to explain all the rankings.

Any ideas?

TM

[lazerzubb]

First do you mean that you are listed in Looksmart directory or using their PPC service?

Secondly
MSN presents results in the following order
Overture
Looksmart
Inktomi

That's probably why you see different results.

MSN doesn't have a completly seperate algo that Inktomi does, i think the only thing that will change the results a little bit is the way you do regional filtering for the results.

[makemetop]

MSN (including the .com) uses Inktomi's geo-targeting algo. Pure INK search does not. This can cause some fairly radical differences in rankings depending on the search terms and site location. Linking can overcome the regional bias, in that a well linked site from 'reputable' sources will boost a site which may otherwise be demoted through the nature of the targeting.

To see this at work, try a search on some terms which aren't swamped by L$ listings on the different MSNs worldwide.

[tennismaster]

Thanks for reply Lazer,

I thought Looksmart directory and PPC were one in the same,
but maybe not?

Just to make it even more confusing, I have found that one of my listings, has a Looksmart title and the desciption
from Inktomi!

I have read through a number of previous posts on this
subject and there seems to be a lot of us who are
struggling to understand MSN/Looksmart rankings!

TM