Interesting to know. If this is the case it may be that they are trying to gain some market by improving their geo-targeted SERPs. To my knowledge MSN executes c. 7% of search in UK so the figure is likely to be similar (if not lower?) here.

I have to be honest and say that I never use or target MSN.

A couple of years ago I got excited when sites would quickly jump up the MSN and Yahoo SERPs but I quickly learnt that what matters in Irish search is Google.

The one possible exception to this is when you are primarily targeting your site at the corporate and office market – apparently MSN can be a lucrative referrer for this segment (I presume due to the amount of office folk who start searches in the Explorer address bar and hence on to MSN Search).

Giving greater weight to ccTLD’s is an interesting idea but I think in the long run Google’s appraoch is more balanced due to the high prevalence of .com domains.

Interesting development all the same. Thanks for posting it.

The first ever comment – I almost feel violated

Nah, actually just feel good that someone left a comment.

Hopefully the first of many.

Excuse the blatant plug!