I dont think anyone can tell you how their spiders or algorithms exactly work. What I do think is apparent, MSN using the "live search" as their search engine has certainly attracted a lot more people. Im asuming both spiders search pages from top left to bottom right, searching for relevant keywords. I think Google may be a bit more clever in terms of detecting related keywords. eg if a page is about stationary and keywords like pens, rulers, staples appear...they may rank you higher. Not sure if Live Search does that.
Google is just years ahead with understanding search. Microsoft will soon catch up with their money, but it will take some time.
Not sure but from my experience with the two. Seem's that Google is more attracted to the quality of the link and will put you accordingly. Where as MSN seems to just index's you as soon as possible and then let time tell. I'm probably wrong but it is the way I look on the two.
i see MSN delivering non-related results in a massive way. google delivers 75% usefull results and 25% spam etc
I am certain about that too - nobody can tell you how exactly the spiders and algorithms work. Which one is better - Google or MSN - not a correct question. It is all a matter of subjective assessment. What is for sure is that Google is far more popular. Why? Remains an open question.
Google has been working on this search stuff for years. I am sure they have tonnes of algo which are trade secrets ;-)