The keyword <edited> was a competitive search at MSN, it is now dominated by a site that has 2,999 subdomains, each with a fully functional 12,000 page website...Any ideas how this is done please?

Bordi, I can't tell you how it's done technically, but I happen to be seeing the same thing happening on searches that are fairly competitive, but nowhere near what we normally think of as hyper-competitive.