What the Jyte?

So I take it Jyte.com has figured out a thing or two about search engine optimization. I've been trying to have soarport hit the top of google's search results for the phrase "big image hosting". It is a phrase that returns about 2.5M results. I couldn't get on the list.

As a lark, I added soarport to Jyte, and my "claim" was that it was the best way to show a big image. Next day I performed another search for "big image hosting" and my Jyte claim was the number 2 result. #2! Out of 2.5 million possible pages! Are you kidding me? I guarantee there are sites out there who want that position. Badly. And here's Jyte - and they have absolutely nothing to do with Image hosting - and they get the #2 spot!! I had to look twice because I just could not believe my eyes. And too boot, Jyte actually helped SoarPort as well. Currently, in a search for "big image hosting", SoarPort is number 7! Can you believe that? I did everything I could to try to optimize my site, and nothing had the effect listing it on Jyte did. And too boot (again) it's not like my claim is lighting up the Jyte community. It is just one of many claims on that site. But somehow Jyte has Google's ear. So....how exactly?

In viewing the Jyte source, the first thing I notice is they are XHTML compliant. OK, so this must have a significant effect of search results. So there is a goal for me with SoarPort right there: get it XHTML compliant.
Next, I noticed their entry page is 21K. SoarPort is 26K. Does size make that much of a difference? Maybe it does? Another goal: trim at least 5K out of the main page. That shouldn't be too tough, considering:
Jyte does use tables, but sparingly. I've heard a lot of discussion on this topic. Most of it I have dismissed. But how can you argue with Jyte's results? If a site like Jyte relies on other means beyond tables to render output, and they can seemingly hit Google's #2 search results at will, why tempt fate? Figure out how to work without tables, and perhaps favorable search results will follow(?) At a minimum, removing (some) tables should help reduce the page size.
Jyte uses OpenID. I know this is a feature of authentication Google supports. Is it possible that openid sites get better Google rankings? Google ranking aside, I think Openid is a good idea and a goal of SoarPort is to include it (its a bit less trivial than I had hoped). But if there is any chance there is also a seo benefit....why not add it?
Jyte also has an interesting tag I've never seen before:

<link title="Jyte" rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" href="http://jyte.com/jyte_search.xml"/>

. So...what exactly is this badboy? Navigating to the jyte_search.xml file, I see it is essentially a meta tag replacement. Could it be that this file is a major clue? Well, ask me in about a week. SoarPort - if nothing else - is about to get an "opensearchdescription"!!!!!