Gov & edu links work like a charm better yet you could make a post on a .edu forum and get off topic visitors galore if you wanted to.
no better than any other relevant powerful link from a good site. not all edu's are universities by a long way
Well personally i believe in the bookmark engines. As long as you have good content related and stuffed with your keyword(s) it surely bootst your rankings.
.TLD Backlinks treated as any other link... the main point is the linking page relevancy and PR value
Honestly, I haven't seen anything but an educated crap shoot when it comes to how fast Google ranks anyone. I have built sites that took weeks or even months to get any kind of indexing. On the other hand, we recently built a site that indexed and got top ranking for several niche terms within just a few hours. I wouldn't be surprised if Google uses a randomizer just to keep us all guessing.
It's not possible to see a bounce in such a short period. What probably happened was that the site moved as result of a change from Google not a change by the SEO guy.
.gov/.edu links are no different from .org links or .com links. But .org, .gov .edu, get ranking boost THEMSELVES because they are such a domain (or so they say). Links can take effect immediately... But there are too many variables to say if there are special circumstances...
Problem is how long this website will stay on top? My guess is that it won't last for even 2 months. Any experienced SEO would tell you that, unless it's a news breaking matter, gaining your SE ranking too fast is not a good thing (especially when you're using shady tactics).
Sorry, it's hard for me to believe an increase of SERP with more EDU and GOV links in merely one day.
The .edu and .gov sites are only better because much of the time, they have higher PR ratings. I do not believe they are inherently better in the grand scheme of things.