Dear Peg,
These are some articles about search engines and rankings
which I have received in email over the last 2.5 years.
No warranty is expressed or implied.
love,
-Dave

search_engine_ranking_article_1.html   5-Nov-2002
search_engine_ranking_article_2.txt   31-Jul-2002
search_engine_ranking_article_3.txt   29-May-2002
search_engine_ranking_article_4.txt   28-Apr-2002
search_engine_ranking_article_5.txt   18-Nov-2001
search_engine_ranking_article_6.txt   16-Sep-2001
search_engine_ranking_article_7.txt   5-Sep-2001
search_engine_ranking_article_8.txt   27-Oct-2000
search_engine_ranking_article_9.txt   24-Oct-2000
search_engine_ranking_article_10.txt   26-Sep-2000

Also, here's a very good article about Meta Search Engines:
http://www.llrx.com/features/metasearch.htm