Speed:

We've figured it out now. You were right, it was a wrap div in both cases (the containing column and particular search results). By giving the wrap divs an explicit width in IE6 the problem went away. So I guess in this case it would be a hasLayout bug?

In both cases the wrap divs background somehow took supremacy and came to the top of everything else. But they also had no styling besides the background, so a width set them straight.

Thanks for your help!