Hi Steve,
Thanks for the suggestion. I did change the layer so that the objectid is now visible, but unfortunately I still have the problem. I really think it's the order that the results are coming back and being processed that is the issue. I think the response is actually getting to the browser (though it's not as easy to tell as it is with firefox and using firebug) but the results are actually getting overwritten by the "Searching..." text. I wish there was a way to supress that message altogether.
Jason