who powers msn

[doniv]

can u plz tell me who powers the results of msn
when i do a search fora particular keyword i find

features sites (i assume sites sorted by some editors)

sponsored sites

web directory

webpages results

what i want to know is whr should be ranked higher .

as the first pages is taken up by the featured sites adn the sponsored sites.

exactly where should we try and get a top ranking in msn

and how can i get a site into the featured sites section????
thankx in advance

[MakeMeTop]

Featured sites = sites chosen by MSN Editors and usually very expensive paid for advertising. Contact your local MSN office for details but expect to pay at least $7.5K per month (on average).

Sponsored listings = Overture PPC results.

Directory listings = LookSmart PPC for commercial sites or Zeal results for non-commercial sites.

Web Pages = Inktomi spidering search engine.

Which you choose depends on the words you are targeting.

[doniv]

u have to pay for an editor to review the site and be listes in the featured listings???

the webpage results supplied by inktomi almost come in the second page and sometimes in the 3 page.

do users actually look for the web page results ignoring the featured, sponsored and directory results????

PS ur reply was fast

[MakeMeTop]

>u have to pay for an editor to review the site and be listes in the featured listings???

No, you have to pay Microsoft. Usually featured listings are an advertisment which are paid for by a cost per view. If MSN are not going to make a few thousand a month out of showing your featured listing they aren't going to do it!

>the webpage results supplied by inktomi almost come in the second page and sometimes in the 3 page.

Depends on the keyphrase. I have thousands of phrases which are searched for which come up on the first page on Inktomi. The trick is finding the ones where that works.

>do users actually look for the web page results ignoring the featured, sponsored and directory results????

If there are few of those results and they don't reflect what they are looking for, yes. You have to research your phrases to decide what you should go into.

[ophirc]

I found on several occasions that the well known:

Featured(MSN Paid)-->
Sponsored (Overture)-->
Web Directory (Looksmart) -->
Web Pages (inktomi)

is not always correct.

I found several results within the "web directory" that don't belong to any of the above categories, furthermore they don't appear in any major search engine or PPC engine.

I researched the subject in depth - and came up with the MSN Directory that once was independant and had no submission policy other than "editors picks" policy.

Question is - what's the rule here - when do we see results that don't belong to the known format?

Example: search for diamond earrings in MSN and looksmart and Compare:

MSN Results (http://search.msn.com/results.asp?RS=CHECKED&Form=MSNH&MT=diamond+earrings)

Looksmart results (http://www.looksmart.com/r_search?look=&key=diamond+earrings) 8)