The other day I ranted (http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/002373.html) on Google, but now its MSN's time. In my rant, I linked to a SERP at Ask http://web.ask.com/web?q=big+blue+pineapple+chair

Then I looked back today at MSN results for big blue pineapple chair (http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=big+blue+pineapple+chair) and saw the 3rd result in MSN Search is...

Ask Jeeves Results - big blue pineapple chair
... The most competitive keyword on the planet, the big blue pineapple chair . Of course I am being sarcastic. www.seroundtable.com/archives/000853.html | Save Google is Proactive on Picasa ...
web.ask.com/web?q=big+blue+pineapple+chair - Cached page - 8/14/2005

http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=site%3Aweb.ask.com&FORM=QBRE

I don't think Ask has only around 60,000 pages at its Index, but...it seems like MSN indeed has been indexing Ask.com

Spiders without brain.

In case anyone reads this and gets the wrong impression, spiders cannot crawl an engine's search results, because to get the results requires a form to be filled in (the searchbox), and spiders can't fill forms.

The only reason that MSN's spider got that results page is because the URL was linked to from another site, and spiders can follow links.

In case anyone reads this and gets the wrong impression, spiders cannot crawl an engine's search results, because to get the results requires a form to be filled in (the searchbox), and spiders can't fill forms.

The only reason that MSN's spider got that results page is because the URL was linked to from another site, and spiders can follow links.
Thanks for clarifying.

Right...

Point is, they should specifically take the time to exclude ask jeeves and even their own (http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/002381.html) SERPs from being indexed. Even if it is linked to.

Yep. It's a wasted listing when it only points to another set of search engine results. But then who cares when it's a listing about a "big blue pineapple chair" :rolleyes:

Have you tried an experiment to get MSN to list its own results page - the one that the listing is on?

Yep. It's a wasted listing when it only points to another set of search engine results. But then who cares when it's a listing about a "big blue pineapple chair" :rolleyes:

Have you tried an experiment to get MSN to list its own results page - the one that the listing is on?
Yes, MSN is listing its own SERPs for the same search - which is hysterical.

See the third result, it pushed down the ask results to number 4.

See http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=big+blue+pineapple+chair

LOL!!! Now that's ridiculous :D

It is more prevalent than you think. I did a little research today to see if any other search engines are crawling each other's results. Most of them do, though none of them crawl all the searches (although MSN crawls 73 million of its own). Check it out:

Search Engine Orgy (http://www.webconnoisseur.com/Search/SEorgy.html)

I'll probably clean the file up tonight when I get home to give it a more polished look and links to the searches I performed.

I didn't go through MSN's results with a fine-tooth comb, but I scanned some of them and didn't see any search results.

Correction:
I found some but they are the brief variety and they redirect. I wonder how they got hold of those.

I was reading http://seoblog.intrapromote.com/2005/12/watching_msns_a.html and it reminded me of this thread. So I checked the SERPs at MSN and it seems like the fixed the issue of indexing other engines and pages with the noindex tag.