Ah, the joys of using non-API APIs :-). I say that in jest because essentially my first stab at the MSDN search gadget wasn't using any *real* API, but rather just formatting queries correctly and hoping that the format would stay the same.
Well, when you do this you run the risk of things changing. For MSDN (and TechNet) search, things have changed 3 times now. Mike Ormond points out that another change breaks the default MSDN gadget that I had created. He's posted a fix that works for him (until the next change) and should for others.
Thanks Mike for posting the fix!