Pairing with Michael, we did our first spike from here:

http://ericdotnet.wordpress.com/2009/04/09/jquery-search-box-and-aspnet-mvc/

worked fine locally, but then going live getting some issues.  Looked like it was mateerit.co.nz/search

<script src="
<%=Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery-1.3.2.js")
%>" type="text/javascript"></script>

The above seemed to work, however the javascript seemed harder:

<script type="text/javascript">


$(document).ready(function() {

$("#searchTerm").autocomplete("/Home/getAjaxResult/");

});


</script>

so I cheated and went onto a subdomain:  jsearch.mateerit.co.nz

All works now with firebug too.